Holy Royal Martyrs Orthodox Christian Church – Parish Bio
The community of Holy Royal Martyrs Orthodox Christian Church was originally founded as St. Genevieve of Paris Western Rite Mission (ROCOR) by Priest Germaine Hoernschemeyer and his wife, Presbytera Abigail in O’Fallon, MO in 2018. After years of opening their home on a weekly basis for services, in the spring of 2024, Fr. Germaine received the opportunity to move the mission to the charming rural town of Montgomery City in Mid Missouri. Transforming the space – an old junk store – into a suitable chapel space was a labor of love on the part of Fr. Germaine and his family, requiring dozens of hours of construction, cleaning, and painting. In September of 2025, Fr. Germaine announced his intention to retire from active ministry, and simultaneously encouraged the parish community to begin discerning the transition of the parish to celebrating services according to the traditional usage of the Russian Orthodox Church.
With the encouragement and discernment of his Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, and through the guidance of the local Dean, Archpriest Sergii Alekseev of St. Basil Orthodox Church, the Holy Royal Martyrs were chosen as patrons and a new parish was formed in January 2026 and a parish council was formed. It is the first parish in the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America under the patronage of the Holy Royal Martyr Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
With the blessing of Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, Reader’s Typika services are now held Sunday mornings, as well as Reader’s Vigil services on Saturday nights, with a catechesis class and akathist service held weekly on Thursday evenings. Work is currently underway to build an altar, create an altar room, and construct an iconostasis so that Divine Liturgy might be served in the near future with the help of visiting priests. There are also many other renovations in the plans to transform the building into a proper church space to serve our growing community (currently 20-25 in attendance). We will be under the rotation of a visiting priest sometime in late Spring or early summer of 2026 for our first divine liturgy.
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“The way to God lies through love of people. Only someone who is in love has the right to call himself a human being.”
Ancient Faith Radio gave Share the Faith Director, Fr Evangelos Pepps, an opportunity to discuss Orthodox mission work in the US. How can we share the faith effectively and establish more Orthodox missions? 
