Kofemania founder Igor Zhuravlev and the Church of St Blaise in Old Konyushennaya Sloboda

From a new film about Kofemania I learned that its founder, Igor Zhuravlev, who attended the Church of the Hieromartyr Blaise in the Old Stable Settlement, considers the rector of that church, Archpriest Alexei Novikov, the man who determined his fate. Hence the actual icons that hang in all of his establishments.

Does anyone else remember from childhood that on every feast day desserts from Kofemashka used to be brought to the church? First, thank God for at least one Orthodox entrepreneur! Second, it is a very touching mention of a beautiful old Moscow church, called at the beginning of the 17th century the church of Blaise on the Goat Marsh.

The church has recently been fully restored and landscaped; the photographs were taken before that moment. In recent years there has been an active struggle over this parish. Novikov is by now a former rector: in autumn 2020 he was appointed a staff cleric of a church nearby, the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God on Mogiltsy. Since his removal three rectors have already followed one another: Paramon, Gerasim, Nikandr