December 11, 2013
Brooklyn, NY: Faithful of Brooklyn Venerate Holy Relics of Optina Elders & other Saints

On Saturday, December 7, the many faithful of Brooklyn made haste to Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church on 18th Avenue, in order to venerate a visiting relic ‒ a piece of the Precious and Life-Giving Wood of the Cross of the Lord, as well as the relics of other God-pleasing saints. The reliquary was brought to the church by Archpriest Serge Lukianov (secretary of Eastern American Diocese and parish rector). Relics of the Optina Elders were given to the Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Church Abroad with the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill. Also placed in the reliquary were relics of saints especially venerated in Russia and now around the world: the Great-Martyr & Healer Panteleimon, the Holy Hierarch Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) of Simferopol, Nun-Martyrs Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Barbara, and Blessed Matrona of Moscow.

Fr. Serge served the All-Night Vigil, co-served by Archpriest Boris Oparin (rector of St. Joasaph of Belgorod Church in Brooklyn), parish clergy Archpriest Petro Kunitsky and Priest Konstantin Gavrilkin, Priests Zakaria Mchedlishvili and Spiridon Narsia (clerics of the Georgian Orthodox Church), and Protodeacon Leonid Roschko and Deacon Michael Wengrin (clerics of St. George’s Church in Howell, NJ). Also singing in the choir was Priest Nicholas Gulin (cleric of St. Stephen’s OCA Cathedral in Philadelphia, PA). The Georgian community is currently searching for a permanent home, and its clerics hold divine services in Georgian on Fridays and Saturdays in Holy New Martyrs Church.

That day, parishioners of the several Brooklyn parishes gathered in the church.

"Today I chose to come here," said Olga, a Brooklyn resident and parishioner of St. Joasaph’s Church. "Fr. Boris cancelled Vigil so that he could come with his parishioners to pray in this church. We are glad that we are able to pray with our clergy here. The help of the saints is strongly palpable. There are a lot of people, but we are triumphant and overjoyed, filled with inner prayer and waiting our turn to venerate the holy relics. You don’t even want to leave! I think that many will leave church calmer and kinder because of their contact with the relics. We are in great need of such conciliation, especially here in Brooklyn."

"Many of us really came to church out of sorrow, if not despair," says Oksana, also a parishioner of St. Joasaph of Belgorod Church. Along with her husband and their two children, she has lived in Brooklyn for the last seven years. They used to attend services at the church "on 18th."

St. Joasaph's Church was consecrated in the beginning of the fall on Brooklyn’s 65th Street, and as a result some of its faithful are former parishioners of New Martyrs Church – the first church of the Russian Church Abroad in Brooklyn. And so, by God’s mercy and through the power of joint prayer, out of many disparate new immigrants, a united Orthodox brotherhood is taking shape in Brooklyn.

"Far from our homeland, we found comfort in church, and ourselves became calmer, more patient, and less likely to want to judge others," continued Oksana. "Our children come to church as well, we travel to Jordanville together, and visited New Jersey while the myrrh-streaming ‘Hawaiian’ Montreal Icon of the Mother of God was traveling throughout that state’s parishes."

Igor was already a faithful Orthodox Christian when he came to America from Kyrgyzstan with his wife and two children. He came to the Brooklyn church this day with his three-year-old daughter Sasha. The girl looks nimble, but has to wear a cast on her leg to fix a congenital curvature; the family starts every day with prayer, and tries regularly to be at the divine services with faith and hope in God’s help. Igor’s older daughter studied for four years at Holy New Martyrs Church’s Sunday school, which her younger sister now attends, as well.

"I enter the church and feel myself renewed, as though I hadn’t just spent several hours hard at work. I am overjoyed at how many people are in church today, having come to venerate the relics and ask for the intercession of the saints. This prayer of ours is powerful, and helps us more quickly reach the heavens."

For Orthodox Christians in the Church, it may be hard to believe that the names of the saints present in the church in their relics might not be well known; nevertheless, they are not as well known to those who are taking their first steps in the Faith, coming to God after many years or even decades of life in Russia, having only acquainted themselves with the Faith of the Fathers once on another continent. For this reason, Fr. Serge spoke briefly but substantively about the Precious Cross of the Lord, calling all to sincere repentance, and about the Optina Elders who, appearing to settle in the forest of central Russia, nonetheless lived as though in a desert: "The forest, pine trees, silence… and only the sound of prayer."  In church, it seemed as though the faithful from across Russia and abroad were rushing to blessed Optina, to the Venerable Elder Ambrose and his brothers in prayer, now glorified among the saints. The people came seeking help and healing, falling down in prayer, and asking the intercessions of the Great Martyr & Healer Panteleimon and his fellow saint: the Crimean Hierarch Luke, an archbishop and surgeon – perhaps the only surgeon who kept an icon hanging in his operating room during the terrible years of Stalin’s dictatorship. A surgeon who saved many people from blindness, he himself was stricken with blindness at the end of his life.

"And even blind, he continued to serve in church in his capacity as Hierarch," said Fr. Serge. "He did not even ask the subdeacons to hold him by the hands, so well did he know his cathedral by heart."

"Meanwhile, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, sister of Empress Alexandra, having witnessed how her husband was blown to pieces by a bomb, gathered the bloody remains. She went to visit the killer in prison, forgave him, and brought him a Gospel in the hope of his repentance.

"The wonderworker of Moscow, Mother Matrona. Her eyes could not see, her legs could not walk; and yet, she lay in bed rejoicing! Thousands of people came to her asking for help. Now thousands approach her relics in church in Moscow, in the hope of her intercession and prayers in the World on High. These are the great saints that have come to our church today."

It is 9 o’clock in the evening. The church remains as full as before. In response to the priest’s summons to sincere, active repentance, the faithful stand on their knees and confess – with an open heart, humility, joy, and not a gloomy face to be seen – in order to cleanse themselves of sin and commune of Christ’s Holy Mysteries on Sunday morning. They are in no rush to leave the church, desiring to remain with the saints, and take home with them, in prayerful memory, a small icon of and prayer to the Optina Elders.

"We came to venerate the relics of St. Matrona. We know of the Optina Elders, too," say Tatiana and Olga from Brooklyn, who recently arrived in the USA from Ukraine. "Reciting their prayer throughout the day is a great help, and grants peace to the heart."

As the evening became night, the Orthodox Brooklynites slowly left the church, that they might return the following morning to the Divine Liturgy and once more venerate the relics of the saints, who themselves will partake invisibly in the divine services, uniting their prayers to that of the clergy, bringing with them a portion of God’s grace, to be given to each according to his faith.

The following morning, Fr. Serge celebrated the Liturgy, so-served by Archpriest Rafael Melendez (cleric of the Albanian Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese), the above-mentioned parish clerics Archpriest Petro and Priest Konstantin, and Protodeacon Leonid. A multitude of the faithful communed from three chalices. Upon completion of the service, a prayer was proclaimed on behalf of those present, to all of the saints abiding in their holy relics.

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