The story of a repentant Sergian Priest!


Princess Natalia Urusova, †1964, wrote in her "Maternal Lament of Holy Rus'":

"As Fr. Alexander*, who was martyred on Bear Mountain near Murmansk, bequeathed unto me, neither I nor [my son] Andryusha ever had communion with the Sergian priests, who commemorated the authorities and metropolitan Sergius.

[*Concerning this Fr. Alexander it is written in "Russia's Catacomb Saints": "It has been recorded that a certain anti-Sergianist priest, Father Alexander, every day would come to work early, at dawn, and on a tree stump, kneeling, would serve the Divine Liturgy. Several people saw how a beam of light descended from heaven and entered his chalice, transfiguring him and those around him" - editor.]

Once there came to us, with certain acquaintances of his, the venerable-looking academician Archpriest Macarius. I knew beforehand that he was a Sergian. Such people were also expelled because a sincere faith in God - so terrible to Satan in the person of the Soviet authorities - was sensed to be still alive in some of them.

Having come to us, he raised his hand to bless me, but I rejected and did not accept his blessing, saying: 'Forgive me, father, I cannot accept your blessing. I know that you belong to the Sergian Church and commemorate the authorities and Sergius.' He did not expect this at all, and turned to Andryusha with his raised hand - but he did not accept his blessing either. He left without saying a word, greatly offended, and said to my friend: 'That this old lady did this, I can still excuse, but that this boy dared to not accept my blessing - this is outrageous.” A few days later he came back and no longer tried to bless us.

I expressed to him my definite view on the Sergian Church and on Sergius. Afterwards, we were to see each other and often talked - being of completely opposite convictions. He arranged something like a small church in his room, served Liturgy, and asked Andryusha to come to sing and read without commemorating either the authorities or Sergius. We refused. So, time passed and we became friends, but not in the matter of church-life, although there were signs that he was becoming reconciled to our views. Once he even had a dispute with Archimandrite Arseniy, who had come to us again, but both remained unconvinced.

He was exiled for only two years, and when he served his term, and came to say goodbye, he said: 'Our conversations did not remain empty and fruitless. I am going to Moscow and there I will find a solution to our differences. I promise that if I am convinced that I am not right, I will honestly tell you about it'. 

He left and three months later, a letter arrived from his son, where he reported that his father, shortly after his arrival in Moscow, officially renounced and departed from the Sergian Church. He refused to worship there for which he was exiled for 10 years without the right to correspond with anyone. No one knows where he was sent."