Constructing the biographies of the clergymen of one church

The article presents the first attempt to show the biographical paths of the Orthodox Church clergy of Kirovsk town in the Murmansk region. Data for the study was drawn from the certain documents and the manuscripts of “chronicles” from the archive of the Church of the Savior in Kirovsk. Kirovsk was built during the first half of the XX century and was characterized by atheistic atmosphere and ideology to set an example for other cities in the Soviet North of the same period, which explains why the case of Kirovsk has been chosen for the study. The Soviet state had to declare the young socialistic town under construction an atheistic area. However, in 1946 an Orthodox church was opened in Kirovsk, the first one in the Murmansk region after the Second World War. The analysis of the existing data enabled us to created “collective biographical description” of the clergy of the Soviet period from the point of view of religious people. The aim of the study was to identify the key meanings and structural narrative stereotypes in the various forms of presentation of the biographies of the representatives of the Kirovsk church clergy. Certain recurrent constructs and narrative patterns clearly stand out in the biographies. A significant result was that in the opinion of the parish and community members the clergy's personal scenario is presenting a biography consistent with a hagiographical image. The clergy life journey depends upon the concept of proof of his sacral status.