St.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral & Church of Our Lady of Tikhvin
200 Alexander Avenue
Howell, NJ 07731
Phone:
(732) 364-3330
Website: www.stalexandernevskycathedral.org
Deanery of New Jersey
Parish
Clergy:
Protopresbyter
Valery Lukianov
Rector
200 Alexander Avenue
Howell, NJ 07731
Phone: (732) 364-3330
fathervalery@optonline.net
Priest Seraphim Chemodakov
222 Alexander Avenue
Howell, NJ 07731
Protodeacon
Nicholas Lukianov
419 Alexander Avenue
Howell, NJ 07731
Phone: (732) 364-7163
lukianov@optonline.net
Alexander
Levitsky
Warden
Phone: (732) 345-0085
a-levitsky@comcast.net
Vladimir Davydov
Choir Conductor
Phone: (732) 642-0893
Choir sings in Church Slavonic only.
Schedule
of Services:
All-Night Vigil: 6:00 PM
Divine Liturgy: 9:30 AM
Choir
sings in Church Slavoniv only. See schedule here.
Parish
Background:
The parish
of St. Alexander Nevsky in Howell, NJ owes its existence to the
ever-memorable Archbishop Vitaly (Maksimenko +1960) who gave over a
gift of 5 acres from Yulia Martinovna Plavskaya to the local Russian
colony of that time, and blessed the start of a new parish and the
building a of a church-chapel. The cornerstone was laid in 1936 in
honor of the Great Prince St. Alexander Nevsky. The initial chapel
was subsequently expanded three times.
In 1989, on
September 12th – the feast day of St. Alexander Nevsky, the
cornerstone was laid for the building of a new cathedral directly
opposite the first church. Its construction was completed in 1994,
and is the work of Nikolaus Karsanov – architect, and
protopresbyter Valery Lukianov – engineer.
The Great
blessing of the new cathedral, dedicated to St. Alexander Nevsky,
took place on October 18th, 1997. The original church was
rededicated in honor of the Icon of Our Lady of Tihvin.
At present the parish
caters for the spiritual needs of some 300 families.
On Saturdays, our parish school educates children in the Orthodox
faith, Russian language, literature, history, culture and more.
Classes are bi-lingual.
„THE
ROYAL ICON“
The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God
in Lakewood, New Jersey
On
the feast of the Nativity of Christ in 1972 (January 7, 1973 (new
style), Lakewood, NJ, resident Olga Vasilievna Astori-Astafieva,
in an act of pious conviction, passed along to our church of the
Right-Believing Grand Prince St. Alexander Nevsky an icon of the
Mother of God of Tikhvin (celebrated on June 26 (old style)). This
wonderful image, painted on a wooden board about 27x32cm, is
covered in a silver mounting with a patterned halo. Above the
first mounting is a second, splendid, inlaid mounting, fully sewn
from river pearls and mother-of-pearl, and decorated with precious
stones from royal icon mountings of the Novodevichy Convent in
Moscow. Though the icon is old, the Countenance of the Mother of
God and the Godchild has been wondrously preserved, their calm,
soft gaze summoning the tenderness of worshippers.
From
the personal conversations of the rector of St. Alexander Nevsky
Church, Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, with the owner of the icon
and based on the eye-witness accounts of Barbara Mihailovna
Charakos, a deeply pious woman with whom Olga Vasilievna shared
much about her life in Russia, a short history of this icon has
come to light. It bears mention that it was on the
recommendation of Ms. Charakos that the icon was gifted to our
church.
The
mother of O.V. Astori-Astafieva, Trofimova (née
Ivanova), a former serf, had a great talent in sewing and
embroidering dresses. This natural ability and enterprising talent
distinguished her as one of the foremost specialists in sewing and
embroidery of dresses, which caused her to be presented to the
Sovereign Empress Maria Feodorovna, who appointed her as an
outfitter for the royal court.
Trofimova’s
studio was located in St. Petersburg. On the occasion of the
Tercentennial of the House of the Romanovs in 1913, Trofimova
received an order for the manufacture of splendid garments for
high-ranking officials. Having completed the order of the royal
court, Trofimova set off for Moscow (where the jubilee would be
celebrated); but a tragedy befell her in her train car: one of the
large containers of royal garments fell from the top shelf onto
Trofimova’s leg, causing her serious injury. In Moscow, the
Empress, having found out about her injury, undertook the warmest
care of Trofimova and, wishing her speedy recovery, sent her to
recuperate in the Caucasus, to which she traveled in the
accompaniment of her daughter, Olga. But recuperation was not
helping; the wound refused to heal, and with the threat of
gangrene setting in, the situation became dire. With every day,
the danger became greater, and the doctors decided to amputate the
leg. In this great danger, on the eve of the day the operation was
to take place, her daughter Olga had an extraordinary dream: she
was a little girl, walking through a rye field; suddenly she was
illuminated by an extraordinary light and heard a voice: “I know
that you are bitterly sorry for your mother! Grieve not, for the
operation will not be needed. Go immediately to the spring that I
will show you, and there your mother will receive healing.” In
her dream, Olga remembered the location of the spring as she was
told.
Mother
and daughter obeyed the voice from above and went to the spring
shown in the dream, and there Trofimova was completely healed.
Upon
their return from the Caucasus, the Empress greeted her healed
seamstress with joy and love, and in memory of the miraculous
mercy of God bestowed upon Trofimova, gave her one as a gift one
of her personal icons, the Tikhvin Mother of God – the same icon
that now resides in our church as a gift of her daughter, Olga
Vasilievna, who received the icon as a blessing from her mother.
In her 87th year of life, feeling her strength leaving her, Olga
Vasilievna came to a decision to donate this holy icon to the
nearby church in Lakewood. She reposed on January 10/23, 1975.
In
1994, the construction of a new cathedral on the church grounds
was completed. In connection with this, faced now with the
existence of two churches in the parish, the Holy Synod gave its
blessing February 15/28, 1994, to consecrate the new cathedral in
honor of St. Alexander Nevsky and rename the old church in honor
of the Most Holy Mother of God, in Her Tikhvin icon. From that
time this “royal” icon has become the namesake icon of this
little church, and the adornment, blessing, and protectress of the
appanage of the holy prince Alexander.
The
icon of the Mother of God is the source of comfort and
justification of the hopes of the faithful Orthodox people living
beyond the borders of their homeland. This icon is the connecting
link to our lost Holy Russia, and is the source of great spiritual
joy and comfort to many of the faithful both in and beyond the
confines of St. Alexander Nevsky parish.
