Archbishop Methodius (Menzak) as a Student and Teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy

Abstract

The history of theological education of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet period still requires broad and in-depth study. Many prominent representatives of the episcopate came out of Moscow Theological Academy. This article examines the period of study and teaching at MThA by Archbishop Methodius (Menzak), a prominent bishop of the Russian Church in the 1960s and 1970s who was brutally murdered in 1974. The main sources for the article were little-studied archival materials, such as the journals of the MThA Academic Council which attest to the life of the Moscow Theological Schools. Also, a defining source was the personal file of Archbishop Methodius, stored in the archives of the Moscow Theological Academy, on the basis of which the details of the ruler's biography can be learned. The main conclusion of the article is that for Archbishop Methodius (Menzak) the period of his stay at the Moscow Theological Schools was a defining one in his life, without which it would be difficult to imagine his archdiocesan ministry.