HOLY MARTYR SERGIY MECHYOV’S LIFE AND SOCIAL SERVICE OF HIS COMMUNITY

The article presents the pilgrimage and peculiarities of the pastoral ministry of archpriest Sergiy Mechyov, praised in 2000 in the host of new martyrs and Russian confessors. The article provides the characteristic of his ministry in Moscow Saint Nicholas church in Klyonniki from 1919 to 1929, when by his efforts there was established the repentant social unit of Maroseyka, the one he had taken over from his predecessor, elderly monk Alexiy Mechyov. By the example of the priest’s life and nurtured laity one can trace the emergence of new forms of public ministry of certain ROC (the Russian Orthodox Church) parish during the period of the Church persecution after the October revolution of 1917.They were: professional retraining of people, aid for exiled or imprisoned priests and the laity as well. There is shown the uniqueness of the fact that after returning of Saint Nicholas church building in Klyonniki in 1990, children and grandchildren of the spiritual sons of martyr Sergiy came for its restoration. That was the way the succession was saved and the link of times was not interrupted.

martyr SergiyMechyov, liturgical family, Maroseyka community, social service