Elias Duke

Elias Herzog (* 1949 in Austria ) is an Austrian Orthodox monk . He was bishop of one old calendar and two old believing churches .

Names

• Michael Rauch, maiden name
• Michael Herzog, later secular name
• Anthony, 1999–2002, in the Church of the True Christians of Greece (Auxentios Synod)
• Ambrosius, 2002–2007, in the Russian Orthodox Old Ritualist Church and the Orthodox Old Ritualist Church.
• Elias, since 2007, in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Life

Michael Rauch was born into a Catholic family of an Austrian and an expelled Galician German . He studied Catholic theology , philosophy and church history in Germany.

In 1975 he became a Protestant . After two years he went to Germany and led a Protestant congregation there.

In 1993 he joined the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece (Auxentios Synod) and was ordained a monk and priest there in 1999 . In 2000 he became Bishop of Germany and Northern Europe .

In 2002 he asked to join the Russian Orthodox Old Ritualist Church . A synod decided on the case of the conversion of a bishop with part of his congregation, which was unique for the church. He had to receive all spiritual ordinations again from baptism and became bishop of Augsburg and all of Germany . In 2004 congregations in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia came under his jurisdiction, and he was appointed bishop of Saint Petersburg and Tver .

In 2005 he switched to the Orthodox Old Ritualist Church in Romania. There he became bishop of Augsburg and all of Germany .

In 2007 he moved to the Western European Exarchate of Congregations with Russian Tradition of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and was ordained archdeacon and archmonk.

Web links

• Ambrosius Herzog Anti-Raskol (Russian)
• Karsten Packeiser: Like a German became an Old Believer, Nezavisimaya Gazeta of March 3, 2004 (Russian)