Valery Lukyanov is a clergyman who has gone from a monastery reader to protopresbyter. At the time of his death, he was considered the oldest cleric of the Russian Church Abroad. Served God for over half a century. For many years he was the rector of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral built according to his project in the US state of New Jersey.
Biography: early years
Valery Semenovich Lukyanov was born on December 21, 1927 in Shanghai. He has Tatar roots on his father, who hails from Kazan. Mother is Siberian. Parents met each other at the front during the First World War, after which they moved to Vladivostok, from where they were forced to flee from the Red Army troops, first to Korea, and then to Shanghai.
The Lukyanov family was a believer and regularly visited the local Resurrection Church. Within its walls, Valery first began to sing in a church choir. From an early age, he went with his parents to the sermons of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Years later, he personally directed Lukyanov on the path of the priesthood.
At that time Shanghai was divided into three concessions, three spheres of influence: English, French and Chinese. Each had its own administration, police, schools and military contingent. Valery's family lived in the territories that were under the control of the Fifth Republic, now the Xuhui and Luwan districts. There he was born and Valery spent his early childhood years. Since childhood, he spoke four languages, including Russian, despite the fact that the first and only time he visited his historical homeland was only in 2002.
The parents sent their son to a Franco-Russian school. At that time, only Russian children studied there. In 1938, Valery's father got a job in the British Concession. The family changed their place of residence, and he went on to study at the classical English grammar school of St. Francis. In 1945 Valery completed the full course and received the Certificate of Maturity.
At that time, life in China was difficult to call calm. After the bourgeois-democratic revolution, which radically changed the political image of the Celestial Empire, the country was engulfed in internal conflicts. All this disrupted peaceful life. With the outbreak of World War II, a lot has changed in Shanghai. People were starving and constantly standing in lines.
When Valery graduated from high school, China was embroiled in a military confrontation with Japan. Soon, under the leadership of the Communist Party, the People's Liberation War began, which lasted four years.
All this time Lukyanov spent in Shanghai. After graduating from high school, he continued his studies at the Higher Technical Courses at the University of Harbin. He left China only in 1949, when martial law was declared in the country. Together with his family, he was evacuated to a refugee camp located on the Philippine island of Tubabao. There, six thousand Russians from Shanghai found salvation from the Chinese communists. Vladyka John was the initiator of the forced evacuation. The island was unbearably hot all year round, from which elderly people suffered.
A year later, Valery managed to go to his sister and her American husband in the States, where his parents had already moved. In 1950 he was drafted into the army for two years. Excellent knowledge of several foreign languages helped Lukyanov a lot: he was sent to serve in the engineering troops, in the statistics department of the General Staff in Washington.
After the army, he entered the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Upon graduation, he received a bachelor's degree with honors.
Career in the world
Between 1955 and 1968 he worked as an engineer for a number of American construction companies. Received the right to private practice as a civil engineer in the states of New York and New Jersey. Later it came in handy for Valery when he devoted himself to serving God.
Service to God
Lukyanov left construction for the sake of the church. Back in 1959, he was ordained first to the reader, and then to the rank of subdeacon. Then his duties included serving the bishop. He easily combined the work of an engineer with the service of God. Three years later, Valery was ordained deacon, and later - priest and presbyter.
In 1968, Lukyanov was appointed rector of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, in the state of New Jersey. Over the years of service, Valery wrote several spiritual books, including:
- "Sunday Divine Service";
- "Spiritual quality of public prayer";
- “Under the protection of the Mother of God - at the feet of the Savior”;
- "Joy in the Lord: A Collection of Spiritual Writings."
The Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, in which Lukyanov was rector for many years, was small. And over the years, the parish has only increased. In the mid-80s, when the wave of Russian emigration began, there was not enough space for everyone in the church. In 1989, a decision was made to build a new church. Valery Lukyanov himself headed the construction work. Educated as a civil engineer, he personally developed the design of the temple and supervised subsequent work. In 1997, for his work on the construction of the new Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Lukyanov was elevated to the rank of Protopresbyter.
He has many awards, including:
- Order of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco;
- Order of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God;
- medal of the participant of the IV All-Diaspora Council.
In 2014, he submitted a petition to the ruling bishop for retirement. Lukyanov died four years later.
Personal life
Lukyanov was married to Irina Mocharskaya, daughter of Archpriest Peter Mocharsky. Valery sang in the choir of one of the temples in New York, where he served. There he met Irina. The girl also sang in the choir. They got married in 1954. Five sons appeared in the marriage, all of them linked their lives with the church.
