Under the shelter of St. Seraphim.

The families who come to live around Diveyevo Monastery to be closer to St. Seraphim of Sarov are similar in that the saint seems to keep them under his wing. Everything that happens in their lives happens under his shelter. 

And this is what happened with Deacon Maxim and his wife Matushka Nadezhda. They had different paths to Diveyevo, but they met in the monastery, where the Mother of God and St. Seraphim are present, where there is a special grace. 

The future deacon Maxim was born on April 27, 1978, in the village of Novomikhailovsky. He was the third and last child in the family. His brother and sister were much older. His parents were typical Soviet people from the pre-war generation. 

Maxim spent his childhood in the wonderful Krasnodar Territory, where the warm, gentle sea glistens with the rainbow, surrounded by emerald mountains, blue skies, the sultry singing of locusts, and the tart scent of southern pines. They say you never leave such places—people don’t exchange them for the harsh Russian hinterland, with waist-deep snowdrifts and six months of wintery blizzards, with large, intrusive mosquitoes in Sarov and the surrounding area in the summer. 

But in this remote place, the beloved Elder Seraphim, an example of Christian humility and prayer, labored in asceticism. You only leave the wonderful sea and such a fruitful region under the shelter of a great saint. 

Maxim’s mother, Tamara, came to faith in the 90s, with all her heart. She would help out a lot at church and go on pilgrimages, and she always took her young son with her. Thus, faith entered the boy’s heart as well. At the same time, in the city of Krasnodar, together with her mama, the young girl Nadia, the future wife of Dcn. Maxim, was also beginning her Church life. They were destined to meet in Diveyevo in 2006.

After high school, Maxim took correspondence courses at the Taganrog Law Institute and worked as a caretaker at a school in his native village. 

At that time, Nadezhda and her mother Lyudmila were blessed to move to Diveyevo. 

During one of his pilgrimages to Diveyevo, Maxim met Nadezhda, and a friendship began. He proposed to her not long after, in the spring of 2007. Matushka recalls that there was no hesitation—it was obviously God’s will, though their first year of family life wasn’t easy. Their firstborn, Kirill, was born on June 12, 2008.

Maxim was ordained a deacon on October 14, 2015, the feast of Holy Protection. He served in parishes in Sarov and worked as the deanery’s lawyer. In 2020, he graduated from the correspondence department of the Nizhny Novgorod Seminary, and in 2021, he was awarded the right to serve with a double orarion. 

The last place he served was the Church of All Saints in Sarov. 

The Lord blessed the couple with four sons. After Kirill, Konstantin was born in 2010, Seraphim in 2012, and Anthony in 2016. Dcn. Maxim loved his sons very much and was very involved in their upbringing. By his own example, he taught the boys to work, play sports, and lead a Church life. He often took the children into the altar, and fostered courage and fortitude in them. 

Dcn. Maxim was very active and athletic, so his sudden sickness was quite unexpected. A slight malaise, which he didn’t pay any attention to, was replaced by lower back pain and a high fever. On November 3, on the eve of the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, Dcn. Maxim was hospitalized and later transferred to the ICU… When the hospital called Matushka with the worst possible news, no one wanted to believe it, because he was young and healthy, with small children.

Dcn. Maxim reposed in the Lord on the evening of November 11, 2021, at the age of 43. His funeral was served in the Church of the Royal Martyrs in Sarov and he was buried next to his mother in the village of Kremenki, not far from Sarov.

Now Matushka is trying to start life anew, distracting herself from grief with her work as a kindergarten caretaker, and of course, with her children. She tries not to let the boys see her grief and to comfort them by acting as both their father and mother. 

Священник: Deacon Maxim Makartsev
Матушка: Nadezhda Makartseva
Дети:
Makartsev Kirill 06/12/2008
Makartsev Konstantin 05/29/2010
Makartsev Seraphim 10/13/2012
Makartsev Anthony 08/19/2016
Место жительства: The family lives in the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region