Father Alexander Men (1935-1990)
a priest for our time
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article by Michel Evdokimov is devoted to the figure of Father Alexander Men (1935-1990), a Russian Orthodox priest murdered in September 1990. Written on the basis of a lecture delivered in Paris in 2010, it offers a biographical and theological presentation of this exceptional pastor, from his childhood marked by Stalinist persecution to his martyrdom. The author traces the spiritual influences that shaped Men — the lineage of the startsy of Optino, the disciples of Saint Alexis Mechev, the eucharistic theology of Afanasiev and Schmemann — and analyses his pastoral, missionary and ecumenical commitments. The main contribution of the article is to show how Men embodied an Orthodoxy open to the world, attentive to the de-Christianised Soviet intelligentsia, and how his thought on divine humanity, prayer and ecclesial renewal remains a challenge addressed to the contemporary Russian Church.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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