Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev: biography, interesting facts from life

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Today Orthodox people, more than ever, have the opportunity to freely acquaint themselves with the spiritual works of modern erudite and intelligent preachers and theologians from various sources, who do a lot to glorify the name of the Lord and give answers to the most burning questions of any Christian. Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev is one of them, and besides, he is a very famous publicist and missionary who conquers with his brilliant sermons, since he is original in his own way and everything he talks about cannot but resonate in human hearts. In many unbelieving people, he awakened true faith in God. Sermons by Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev in the form of videos, audio recordings and lectures can be viewed or read on websites.

Biography

Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev was born in 1961 in the wonderful city of Orekhovo-Zuevo near Moscow. His entire family was Orthodox. Grandmother - Matryona Fedorovna - worked in the temple, she was a mother-heroine, as she gave birth to 11 children. Her most hated and abusive word was"communist".

Oleg Stenyaev's grandfather was a front-line soldier, he worked anywhere, but not for the state - a stove-maker, carpenter and builder. He never received any official salary or pension. Oleg's parents, as well as uncles and aunts, lived in every possible way adhering to God's laws, they all got married and baptized their children. None of them joined the Komsomol either.

The whole family lived alone on the banks of the Klyazma River in a large private house without a TV, but with a Bible. Not far from them was the functioning Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.

Once in kindergarten, they noticed a cross on Oleg's chest, which was immediately taken away from him by force, and then thrown away. The boy was very hurt, he cried for a long time.

School

At school, everyone also knew that Oleg Stenyaev was from a believing family, so once a special commission was even created, which came to their home and suddenly saw a Bible on their table. Uninvited guests immediately began to resent what the child was reading. But the grandmother was not at a loss, took a broom and "swept" them out of her house. It was the 70s, the believers then no longer had to fear for their lives and behaved quite boldly. Then Oleg was agitated to join the Komsomol, but he refused, surprisingly, the class supported him. Moreover, even the teacher of literature Stanislav Andreevich - a war invalid and a communist - defended him and believed that he was a normal student, and they make an atheist out of him.

After graduating from school, Oleg went to work as a turner-borer, then he was taken to the army in the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and after that he decided that he would be a policeman. Grandmothershe did not approve of this and sent him to study at the seminary, but due to family circumstances, he did not finish it. Then he was ordained a deacon, and he served in the Ivanovo, Tambov and Moscow dioceses.

The Stolen Bride

One day he had a choice: to marry or become a monk. He had a girlfriend from Western Ukraine, and Oleg decided to marry her. But during Gorbachev's Perestroika, the Greek Catholic Church was legalized, in which the rite was Orthodox, and the faith was Catholic. The Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk and Gomel dioceses withdrew from the Moscow Patriarchate. The bride's parents wanted him to accept their faith, but he refused. As a result, his bride became a nun in a Catholic monastery. Oleg had the brightest and kindest memories of her, they even corresponded at one time, but according to the rules of their order, letters had to be read in front of everyone and the abbess forbade them. From that moment on, Stenyaev had a special fuse in polemics with non-Orthodox people. After all, thanks to them, he was left without a bride.

Schismatic

In 1990, just before the collapse of the USSR, he read an article in the Pravda newspaper that the Patriarch was praying for unity in the CPSU. This was the reason that Oleg Stenyaev moved to a non-canonical Orthodox association - a community that broke away from ROCOR. Then he served in the Martha and Mary Convent. But when the Soviet regime collapsed, he came with repentance, he was forgiven, all the more, he returned Marfo-Mariinsky to the control of the Russian Orthodox Churchthe monastery, however, before that gathered its clergy and parishioners, where they jointly decided to return to a single Church.

Oleg Stenyaev externally graduated from the Theological Seminary, and then the Moscow Theological Academy, and was elevated to the rank of archpriest. Since 2004, he has served as a clergyman of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist (Moscow, Sokolniki district). Stenyaev became the author of a number of programs on the radio "Radonezh" and the chairman of the newspaper "Missionary Review". He headed the Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Non-Traditional Religions, thanks to which more than three thousand people became Orthodox.

Chechen war

During the first war in Chechnya in the early 90s, Stenyaev visited the Russian military more than once, he baptized many of them, and simply handed out crosses, and even the Muslims who served there took them. The soldiers explained this by saying that they were fighting for Russia.

During the second Chechen period, Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev went on a charitable mission, he distributed warm clothes and food to the peaceful people of the city of Grozny. And then one day their minibus was stopped by Chechen fighters. They were very lucky that one Chechen recognized Stenyaev, because he saw how he was distributing cereals and condensed milk to children in the square. They were released, but the car stalled. Stenyaev understood that now they could easily be put in a cold and dark pit. He took out some alcohol and took a sip to warm himself and cheer up a little. The militants began to deal with their engine. Stenyaev spoke to one of them and asked why they were still detaining three Orthodox priests in their captivity, to which he replied that they did notpriests, and parachutists are FSB sportsmen.

Turning to Stenyaev, he said that it was immediately clear from him that he was a Russian pop - fat, arrogant, drunk and not afraid of anything. And he added that Allah will punish the one who touches him. After that, the priest got into his transport. The militants pushed their minibus and they drove on. Yes, it is not for nothing that they say that there are no atheists in the war.

Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev: books

Many books have been published by him. He is a specialist in the field of sectarian studies and comparative theology, so he wrote many books on this topic: “Jehovah's Witnesses. Who are they?" (1996), "Conversations on the book of Genesis" (1999), "Krishnaites, who are they?" (2004), "Satanism" (2002), "Discourses on the Gospel of Matthew" (2009) and many more.

Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev: "Apocalypse"

Oleg Stenyaev's book, which he called "Conversations on the Apocalypse", turned out to be quite interesting and very exciting. In it, he began to study the most complex biblical book, "The Revelation of John the Theologian", or "Apocalypse" (Greek translation). He deciphers it in a modern way. Not every priest and theologian will undertake this interpretation, but Oleg Stenyaev did everything in the most magnificent way. At first, he simply had conversations with parishioners on these topics, but then he was asked to create a book that many of the believers now read with great pleasure. On the Internet, you can even see a video lecture by Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev, which has the same title asbook.