31 Facts About Alexander Men

Alexander Vladimirovich Men was a Soviet Russian Orthodox Church priest, dissident, scholar of theology and the bible, and author of works on theology, history of religion, the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, and Orthodox worship.

Alexander Men wrote dozens of books, including his magnum opus, History of Religion: In Search of the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Alexander Men baptized hundreds of people, founded an Orthodox open university in 1990, established one of the first Sunday schools in the USSR, and created a charity group supporting the Russian Children's Hospital.

Alexander Men's father, Volf Gersh-Leibovich Alexander Men, was born in Kyiv in 1902.

Alexander Men graduated from two universities and worked as the chief engineer of a textile factory.

Yelena Semyonovna Alexander Men was drawn to Christianity from a young age and studied the Orthodox faith at a private gymnasium in Kharkov.

Alexander Men was born in Moscow to a Jewish family on 22 January 1935.

Alexander Men's father spent over a year in custody and was then assigned to labor in the Ural Mountains.

Alexander Men studied at the Moscow Fur Institute in 1955 and transferred to Irkutsk Agricultural Institute, from which he was expelled in 1958 due to his religious beliefs.

On 1 September 1960, Alexander Men became a priest after graduating from the Leningrad Theological Seminary.

In 1964 and 1965, Alexander Men's father was investigated due to his acquaintance with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Alexander Men became an influential leader with a good reputation among Christians, both locally and abroad, including those in the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox faith.

In 1984, Alexander Men was interrogated in connection with his student Sergei Marcus; during these interrogations, Alexander Men was threatened with a ban from serving in any of the Moscow parishes.

Alexander Men was one of the founders of the Russian Bible Society in 1990; that same year, he founded the Open Orthodox University and "The World of the Bible" journal.

Alexander Men actively supported charitable activities, attending the founding of the Mercy Group at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, which was later named after him.

Alexander Men had served at the parish in Novaya Derevnya for 20 years.

Alexander Men's funeral was held on 11 September 1990, the day in the Orthodox calendar that commemorates the beheading of John the Baptist.

Many other works by Alexander Men have been published in Russian, most notably:.

Nevertheless, Alexander Men has a considerable number of supporters, some of whom advocate for his canonization.

Alexander Men's books are no longer restricted from print in Russia; during his lifetime, they had to be printed abroad, mainly in Brussels, Belgium, by the publishing house Foyer Chretien Oriental and circulated in secret.

In December 1990, the Alexander Men Foundation was founded in Riga.

Alexander Men was canonized by the Apostolic Orthodox Church in 2004.

Alexander Men's son, Mikhail Alexander Men, is a Russian political figure who served as the Governor of Ivanovo Oblast from 2005 to 2013 and subsequently as Minister of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities Sector in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet.

Alexander Men is a musician known outside Russia for the Michael Men Project.

Many of them now admit, in a half-whisper, "in fact, it was Alexander Men who brought me to the Church from the very beginning," and look away, as if apologizing for something.

Alexander Men's death was tragic, and I think that if it is proven that it was martyrdom, he can be canonized as a martyr.

Metropolitan Hilarion, on the Church and the World program aired on the Russia-24 channel on 13 February 2021, stated that Alexander Men's works contain controversial views but that this is not an obstacle to Alexander Men's canonization:.

Father Alexander Men was an outstanding preacher, catechist and missionary of his time.

Alexander Men's life took place in difficult conditions, when the Church was deprived of the opportunity to preach outside churches.

Alexander Men preached in his church, where he served as a priest until the end of his days.

Alexander Men preached through books, and in his later years, as new opportunities opened up, he preached in secular audiences.