Gena Chudnevich was born in prison. He returned there as a teenager from the orphanage. His fate would have been typical for such cases: “Stole, drank, went to jail...”, but in the penal colony he suddenly began to build a church. And a miracle happened: a semi-literate guy, who did not even graduate from school, almost single-handedly built a huge wooden church according to all the canons of ancient Russian architecture! That’s how the former convict became hieromonk Gerontius. Having led a team of the similar poor fellows, he began to restore ancient monasteries - monuments of architecture. But when a misfortune happened to Father Gerontius, the official church cruelly “thanked” him for his talent and selfless devotion.
