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image from St. Petersburg Times, found hereHere is the article.
Please pray for Father Alexios to recover both mentally and physically after this terrible crime. The attacker is now making all kinds of ridiculous allegations to try and turn the story around now. What is this world coming to?
If anyone is interested I will be collecting get well cards and letters for him to show our support.
Please keep him in your prayers...Lord have mercy...
21 comments:
I just saw this story from one of my friends on facebook! So shocking! My prayers are with Fr. Alexios, Lord have mercy!
Father and I just read this article. We are in total shock. He is in our prayers.
Oh my goodness! Lord have mercy.
So sad. Fr. Alexios is in our prayers.
Lord Have Mercy.
Lord, have mercy! The father's appearance is a way of confessing Christ in this world.
Oh no. That marine had better lay off the roids. Lord grant Fr. Alexios a speedy recovery.
Lord have mercy, poor Father Alexios!
This is so sad! I would like to send a card, please let me know how to do so.
You don't go around attacking everyone who asks you for directions! This fella is obviously a 'loose canon' - there's a very serious/grave problem here including some aggression issues.
Best wishes for Fr.Alexios' recovery. I pray to Christ and St.Anargyroi for him.
I am not that surprised though. My late grandfather served as a priest long before the war in Iraq pumped up muscles and reduced brains, and he was very often looked upon with contempt by the "native" military. He was such a quiet and smiling soul that he put everyone at ease, though his English wasn't very good either.
Can't blame the marine either. Who knows what traumas he has suffered during his training and serving time...
I once asked a Greek Orthodox priest about his Western-style clergy uniforms and short beard. It turns out that in the South in the 20s/30s, there was a lot of persecution directed towards the Greek and Russian clergy. So they were told by bishops to shorten their beards and adopt the Western-style clothing.
That said, it's a sad day for all of humanity when one cannot wear a beard or have limited English without fear of retaliation.
Truly this is a disturbing story. Thanks for reporting on it.
May God heal Father Alexios.
It should be considered, though, that our military personnel are being educated about their potential encounters with other human beings that are different in appearance, dress, language, etc. in that they are taught to discern between similarities on the surface. I do not know how this is incorporated in the Marine Reserves, but my husband is both a Marines and Army veteran and this is certainly a vital part of their training.
In any event, this is a sad example of the Evil One around us, and the attacker is in need of our prayers as well.
As a means of a quick update (being a seminary friend of Father Alexi), he is doing well, the entire parish he is serving in Tarpon is behind him, and he is not pressing charges against the man but is asking for us to pray for him.
What better opportunity do we have to show love than to the man who has done despicable acts to one of our own. May Christ have as much mercy on our souls as we pray for Him to have on Fr. Alexi's assailant.
Lord have mercy!
Our 2nd matushka and priest told me about this incident. It's terrible. I also worry about my dad (who is a priest) because he has a long beard and hair...and I suppose if one is a racist would think he is a terrorist too, but inside he is so kind and sweet. May God help Fr Alexios. AND I hope that guy realizes what he has done was wrong.
A monk living in New York after 9/11 requested and received permission to wear a visible cross (as only priests do in the Russian tradition) and began wearing a hat with a red, embroidered cross on the front all to ensure he would not be taken for an 'Arab'. Another hieromonk took to wearing what could easily have been a wall cross on a chain, and he was still taunted by local youth (of an ethnic minority, ironically enough). The Middle Eastern-looking, bearded, Georgian priest speaking little, heavily accented English driving an unmarked, package van back and forth over the bridges from Queens to Manhattan was a more understandable stop for the NYPD - which had nothing to do with with wearing priestly attire mistaken as 'Muslim' and was more polite and official.
We will pray for Father Alexios and have him put on the list of the Sunday ectenia for the sick at our Russian Orthodox church in Vevey (Switzerland)
Subdeacon Claude (Lopez-Ginisty)
GIve us regular news about his recovery!
How sad for both individuals. The priest for his great and unfair suffering at the hands of another. And how sad for the Marine who may have already been dealing with a great deal of violence and suffering.
May God have mercy, and may God in His great and infinite love and kindness, grant us love toward one another.
Anonymous-
I agree, both people definitely need all the prayers they can get. The poor, poor priest and the attacker too. Even though, for the record, if by saying "dealing with a great deal of violence and suffering." you meant from the military, he has never been deployed and has never seen any violence of suffering on the marine end of things.
If you meant pain and suffering from his disgusting choice of work outside of the marines, I agree completely.
I will continue to pray for them both but love in my eyes does not equal tolerance.
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