Background
Born in France, the son of Alexander Schmemann and Juliana Ossorguine (a descendant of Juliana of Lazarevo, a Russian Orthodox Saint), he moved to the United States as a child, in 1951.
Born in France, the son of Alexander Schmemann and Juliana Ossorguine (a descendant of Juliana of Lazarevo, a Russian Orthodox Saint), he moved to the United States as a child, in 1951.
Earlier in his career, he worked for the Associated Press and was a bureau chief and editor for the New York Times. He grew up speaking Russian at home, but he visited his ancestral homeland for the first time only in 1980 when he arrived with his family as Moscow correspondent for the Associated Press. His reflections on the changing fate of the village provided the subject matter for his memoirs, published in 1997.
The September 12, 2001 New York Times featured a front-page article written by Schmemann about the September 11 attacks.
Schmemann has three children and lives in Paris.