Source: The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Los Angeles, April 8, 2016
A considerable portion of the articles written by the ever-memorable Bishop Alexander (Mileant) of ROCOR in English have been collected and published in a separate book, entitled Orthodox Christianity.
The paperbound collection which has come out in large print contains 492 pages of essays that cover all spheres of Orthodox Christian teaching, of historical, dogmatic and moral content.
Those who will read the collection through carefully will obtain a comprehensive picture of the nature of the Orthodox faith, its essence and meaning, and, perhaps the most important thing—of how to apply this teaching in life. It can be said that the collection’s contents is like a “minicourse” of what is taught at Orthodox seminaries.
The book is divided into the following parts: The Foundations of the Orthodox faith, The Orthodox Church, What is the most essential thing?, The Faith is the clue to the Divine treasure, The One God glorified in the Holy Trinity, “I believe”—a brief synopsis of the Orthodox faith, The Holy Spirit and the varieties of His gifts, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov on the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit, The Superior force, On Following Christ, The Spiritual life in the world, The Most Holy Mary-Mother of God, Angels, The End of the world, The Sermon on the Mount, Love, Sorrows in our life, Humility and pride, Chastity, Marriage or “free love”?, Child rearing, Life after death, and On the Threshold of the new millennium.
His Eminence Alexander, Bishop of Buenos Aires and South America, was born in 1938 in Odessa. After his father was killed in the Second World War his family moved to Prague and from there to Rome. In 1948 the family moved again to Buenos Aires. From his youth Alexander strove to serve the Church, and later, under the influence of ever-memorable Athanasius (Martos), Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he started his thorough research of the lives of the saints and the works of the Holy Fathers. He wished to study them in the original for which he specially learned modern and ancient Greek.
In 1963, upon graduation from university, the future Bishop Alexander entered the Holy Trinity Theological Seminary in Jordanville which he completed in 1967. In the same year he was ordained a deacon and soon a priest (his ordination was celebrated by Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky), primate of ROCOR) and for 31 years served as rector of the Holy Protection parish in Los Angeles. During that time he obtained a Master’s Degree and got a job at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), namely at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), as a spaceship engineer.
In the 1980s he began writing and publishing booklets on Orthodoxy, not only for his parish, but also for spreading all over the world, particularly in Russia where there was an acute need for spiritual literature. He developed the complete course of the Law of God for parochial schools in whose work and activities he was involved throughout his pastoral and archpastoral ministry. These booklets were published in Russian, English, Spanish and Portuguese. The present collection comprises a considerable amount of material from his booklets once published in English.
In 1995 he was tonsured a monk at the Holy Trinity Monastery but kept his name Alexander in honor of the New Martyr Alexander of Kharkiv (his former patron-saint was the Right-Believing Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky).
On May 29, 1998, he was consecrated as Bishop of Buenos Aires and South America at the Synodal Cathedral of the Kursk-Root Icon of Our Lady of the Sign in New York.
Bishop Alexander shared his time between his pastoral care of the Holy Trinity parish in Oxnard, California, and South America. He also simultaneously continued his work as a space engineer as several years remained until his pension. At the end of his life Bishop Alexander was diagnosed with cancer which proved to be incurable and he reposed in the Lord on September 12, 2005, and was buried in the monastic graveyard at Holy Trinity Monastery.
The present collection of works of Bishop Alexander has been published in commemoration of this inspiring man who zealously served the holy Church.
The book can be purchased through Amazon for $17.00.
