Makarii Marchenko

Monk Makarii Marchenko was a Russian Orthodox priest who arrived with Bishop Seraphim in Winnipeg in April 1903.

[1] Marchenko's arrival in Winnipeg is described by Bodrug: "There (at the Immigration Building upon first arriving) he (Seraphim) served mass with the assistance of the monk-priest, Makarii Marchenko, who had earlier fled from Athos and travelled through the main cities of Asia Minor, Southern Europe and South America.

Seraphim and his assistant served mass at the Holy Ghost Church on the corner of McGregor Street and Pritchard Avenue on 13 December 1903, a small frame building on the east side of McGregor Street between Manitoba and Pritchard Avenues, blessing it and officially opening it for worship.

Negrich and I had never made any effort to hear confessions, and Father Makarii was glad of this, since it gave him an opportunity to make a few dollars from the confessors.

He had a hearty appetite, nor was he one to 'toss a drink over his shoulder', and so with both hands he showered blessings on all people, good and bad, while whispering quotations from the Bible.

Father Makarii, glad that Seraphim did not call on him to assist with the service, stationed himself behind the altar, where he munched noisily on wafers, drinking them down with wine.

"Shocked by their bishop’s indiscriminate ordination of clergy, his drinking sprees and the ludicrous actions of his simple minded assistant, Makarii Marchenko, the more intelligent priests led by John Bodrug persuaded Seraphim to go to Russia in the fall of 1903 to obtain sanction of the Holy Synod for his church."

"His successor, Makarii, completed the sham, proclaiming himself 'Arch-Patriarch, Arch-Pope, Arch-Tsar, Arch-Hetman and Arch-Prince' and excommunicating the Pope and the Holy Synod.

There is a story of Makarii Marchenko barging into one home without knocking and sprinkling everything and everybody with holy water, and requesting to be fed.

Perceptively, Maydanyk noted that, though we do not know why Marchenko left the Russian church to begin with, no matter how difficult life became for him outside of it, he never returned to its fold.

have suggested that Makarii Marchenko behavior might be understood through the eastern Christian role of the Holy Fool.