Encounters with Fr. Alexander Schmemann

by Fr. John Jillions

I regularly recall three encounters with Fr. Alexander.

In the winter of 1975 he came to Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Montreal, where I was a university student. I remember very clearly his insistence that “everyone must have his own theology.” As long as this faith remains only of the Fathers and the Saints then it is unreal and has not yet made its way deeply into my mind, soul and heart.

In 1978, my first year at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Fr. Alexander was presiding at the Matins of Great and Holy Saturday. Burned into my memory is the image of Fr. Alexander censing briskly as the first proclamation of the resurrection broke through the darkness and the lights went on: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes...By destroying the power of death, O Savior, Thou didst raise Adam and save all men from hell!” Fr. Alexander’s face was radiant and determined, even defiant, and I thought of the verse from Isaiah, “I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame” (Isaiah 50:7).

In the Spring of 1983 Fr. Alexander was already sick with cancer. I had graduated from seminary three years earlier and was working at Banker’s Trust next to the World Trade Center, contemplating a difficult decision about ordination to the priesthood. I rarely spoke with Fr. Alexander over the years – I was in awe of him and always tongue-tied – but I knew I needed his advice, so I called him from the lobby payphone. He listened carefully to my dilemma and then said, “John, you always know where the easy way comes from.”