Church of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow in Raevo
The church-chapel of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, in Raev is located at 25A, Shirokaya Street. On June 2, 2000, on the feast of the finding of the relics of St. Alexy, the consecration of the temple and the first Divine Liturgy took place. Saint Alexy was born in Moscow in 1292 and was christened Eleutherius. An old legend says that, as a 12-year-old boy, he caught birds in nets; while guarding them, he fell asleep and in a dream heard a voice saying to him: “Alexy! Why are you working in vain? Leave it; you’re going to be a man-catcher.” From that moment the boy began to think and often left the house for the forest, where he read spiritual books and prayed. In 1320, Eleutherius left his family and joined the Moscow Epiphany Monastery, where he took vows with the name Alexy. Alexy stayed in this monastery for twenty years and, having studied the Greek language, began correcting the Slavic translation of the Gospel according to the Greek text. In 1350, St. Alexy was consecrated Bishop of Vladimir by Metropolitan Theognost, and after the death of Metropolitan Theognost, he was appointed as Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia in his place. Although the Ecumenical Patriarch appointed St. Alexy to the metropolitan throne, he had to go to Constantinople two more times to settle the discord that arose in the Church due to the appointment of another Metropolitan, Roman, as Patriarch. These troubles ended with the fact that Alexy was given control of the Kiev and Great Russian dioceses, and Roman was given control of the Little Russian dioceses. Returning from Constantinople by sea, Alexy was caught in a terrible storm and vowed, if the ship was saved from sinking, to build a church in the name of the saint, who would be celebrated on the day when the ship docked. The ship safely reached the shore on August 16 (29) on the feast of the Miraculous Image of the Savior and, in memory of this miraculous deliverance, St. Alexy founded the Andronikov Monastery of the Miraculous Savior in Moscow. Upon his arrival in Moscow, Metropolitan Alexy began to zealously engage in church affairs and in his district messages taught his flock diligence, diligent performance of duties and attentive listening to the word of God. In addition, by his influence, St. Alexy often stopped the feuds of the princes and gained such respect by his wise management that they began to write in the treaties between the princes at that time: “With the blessing of our father, the Metropolitan of All Russia.” In the last years of his life, St. Alexy built many churches and monasteries, of which in Moscow: the women’s Alekseevsky and in the Kremlin, on the site given to him by Hansha Taydula, a monastery in honor of the miracle of Archangel Michael in Honech, where he bequeathed to bury himself.
Address: Moscow, Shirokaya str., 25A
