AFANASIEV, NIKOLAI N

AFANASIEV, NIKOLAI N., priest, theologian (4 September 1893 [O.S.]-4 December 1966). Born in Odessa, the son of a lawyer, he studied at the University of Novorossiisk, with a university level in mathematics and medicine. In 1920 he evacuated to Serbia, where he enrolled in the theological faculty of Belgrade University in the spring of 1921. There in 1927 he produced the thesis, in Serbian, “The Power of the State in the Ecumenical Councils.” In Prague, 1925, he married Mariamna N. Andruskova, a niece of Heinrich Schliemann, after which he taught religion in a secondary school in Macedonia. In 1930 he moved to Paris to receive a stipendiary lectureship to teach at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute (q.v.). He taught patristic history, then received the chair in Canon Law in 1932. He was made a deacon on 7 January 1940 and a priest the following day. In July 1941, he left France for Tunis to serve the Orthodox community there. He returned to Paris at the end of the war, continuing to teach at St. Sergius until his death. He was a founder of the Russian-language journal Put. His concept of “Eucharistic ecclesiology” has influenced a number of Orthodox thinkers, including Fr. Alexander Schmemann (q.v.).