1,484
edits
Changes
m
internal link
[[File:GeorgeBenigsen.jpg|right|thumb|180px| Mitred Archpriest George M. Benigsen]]
'''George M. Benigsen''' was a [[mitremiter|mitred]]d archpriest of the [[Orthodox Church in America]]. Of Russian origin, he served extensively in the OCA and its predecessor organization the [[Metropolia]]. He participated in the [[Pskov Orthodox Mission]] during the early 1940s.
==Life==
Under the difficult conditions of the German occupation, Fr. George became a witness of the spontaneous religious revival of Church life and of the great thirst for the Faith among the Russian population. As a priest in Pskov, Russia under German occupation, Fr. George served at the [[Trinity Cathedral (Pskov, Russia)|Holy Trinity Cathedral]] of Pskov. He was the secretary of the mission. Later, he became rector of the church of the Holy Martyr Demetrius, where he organized a church school for 200 students and an orphanage for forty children who had lost their parents in the war.
The mission at Pskov continued for two and a half years until 1944 when the advancing Soviet forces ended the brief period of religious freedom. With the advance of the Soviet forces, Fr. George and his family moved west. After participating in the funeral of the assassinated Metr. Sergius in Latvia, they moved into Germany where Fr. George served briefly under Metr. [[Seraphim (Lade) of Berlin ]] at the Berlin cathedral providing spiritual care for Russian refugees and forced labor workers. Then, with a group of [[clergy]] and [[laity]] the Benigsen family fled to southern Germany in February 1945, there to see the final street fighting between the German and American forces.
In the turmoil at the end of the war, Fr. George began a new period of pastoral services among the refugees. The threat of forced repatriation of Russian hung over the "Displaced Person" community. Through a [[miracle]] Fr. George and his family escaped repatriation when Fr. George found that the secretary of the American commandant was a former schoolmate. Fr. George continued to serve in the refugee camps until 1947 when he received an appointment to the [[chapel]] of St. Stephen attached to the House of Mercy in Munich, Germany. In 1948, Fr. George succeeded Fr. Alexander Kiselev, the founder of the House of Mercy, as its director, a position he held until his emigration to the United States.
*[http://www.holy-trinity.org/authors/benigsen/index.html Mitred Archpriest George M. Benigsen]
[[Category: Priests|Benigsen]][[Category: Missionaries|Benigsen]]
