His father sang in the choir of the church of the Nikolo-Krutiny village. Victor Aksenov’s parents were ordinary, pious church people. Victor and his spouse peacefully reposed in Christ. Victor himself and his son Roman were born there. Pavel aksenov poslednyaya vera windows#This house is a simple country izba, painted with green oil paint, with its windows facing the road. Victor’s and his family’s life is connected with the same house and a rural church. As the saying goes: “This is the Russian spirit, the fragrance of Russia”. I knew many families of priests where even several sons followed in their father’s footsteps, but only the Aksenovs have given an example of the family way of life according to class and community. As a matter of fact, I have never met a more patriarchal and traditional family than the large family of Father Victor and Matushka Vera. The clergy in pre-revolutionary Russia were like a class: very often the rector of a parish church would be succeeded by his son after his death. Later his son became its rector and continued his father’s ministry. Nicholas Church was returned to the Moscow Patriarchate. Victor served in many parishes, but when he became dean of the Yegoryevsk district, the St. Could he imagine at that time that one day he would start the restoration of this church, associated with his home?įr. Victor passed by the closed and desecrated church his heart was wrung with deep sorrow. Both of these populated localities stretch along a road and have almost no distinct boundary. Victor’s birthplace) villages virtually form one large settlement on the outskirts of the town of Yegoryevsk in the Moscow region. It was he who baptized the newborn Victor Aksenov. At one time the rector of this church was Hieromartyr Martyr Nikolai Golyshev (1882-1938, feast: February 4/17). Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Nikolo-Krutiny village had been closed and ravaged in the Soviet era. Roman would serve, because his father had undertaken the restoration of a church close to their native village. When Roman Aksenov and I were still studying at the Moscow Theological Seminary, all of our fellow students knew where the future Fr. “Better late than never,” I thought about it and took the liberty of performing this sacrament over them right in their home. During the confession the woman shared her sorrow with me: It grieved her that she had not had time to be married to her husband in church and then, she thought, it was too late because her husband was dying. I confessed her and gave her Communion as well. His wife was also so feeble that she could not leave the flat. He was in his final days, very weak, unable to walk, and could only lie and sit a little. I was invited to give Communion to an old man who was dying of cancer. During that sacrament I came in contact with eternity, with that very eternal love that “faileth not”. But the happiest and most moving church wedding I’ve seen, that touched me to tears, was not the wedding of a young couple but that of a very old couple. As the Gospel of John reads: He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice (Jn. A wedding guest shares the joy of the newlyweds and this makes him feel happy as well. A wedding, a is always a happy event-not only for the groom and the bride but also for everyone present.
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