Theophilus Paschkovsky

Archpriest Theodore Paschkovsky

Metropolitan Theophilus , (baptized name: Fyodor Nikolajewitsch Paschkowski , Russian Фёдор Николаевич Пашковский , English Theodore Pashkovsky ; born February 6, 1874 , Kiev ; † June 27, 1950 in San Francisco ), was the primate of the North American Metropolis of San Francisco, Archbishopric of the Orthodox Church and Metropolitan of All America and Canada .

Life

Fyodor Paschkovsky was born on February 6, 1874 in the Kiev province into a priestly family. He attended the preparatory courses of the Kiev Theological Seminary (Киевская духовная академия), where his diligence was noticed. As a young student, he experienced a bone infection that doctors considered incurable. Prayers offered for him by St. John of Kronstadt are said to have achieved complete healing; in any case, Theophilus survived the infection without consequences. Fyodor promised to become a novice out of gratitude . He entered the Kiev Pechersk Lavra in 1894 .

When Bishop Nicholas Ziorov of the North American Diocese visited Lavra to recruit people for his mission, Fyodor was invited to America. He was hired as secretary for the administrative duties of the mission shortly after arriving in San Francisco in 1894 . Soon after, he met Ella Dabovich from the Serbian community, whom he married a little later. She was the niece of father Sebastian Dabovich .

He was ordained a priest on December 4, 1897, shortly before he had been ordained a deacon.

On June 20, 1900, the first son Boris was born, who gained prominence as an American Colonel during the Second World War . He became the leader of the Alsos Mission in Europe in the course of the Manhattan Project and was involved as Foreign Liaison Officer under General Douglas MacArthur in negotiations on the future of the Japanese Orthodox Church 1945-1947.

When Archbishop Tikhon (Bellavin) returned to Russia in 1906, Fyodor accompanied him with his family and initially worked in the administration of the Warsaw-Vilnius diocese .

During the First World War , Fyodor worked in the Famine Relief Program of the YMCA on the Volga . His wife died in 1917.

As the Bolshevik regime increased its influence over the Church, Pashkovsky met frequently with Patriarch Tikhon to discuss the future of the North American Diocese. During the talks, the Patriarch also expressed his wish that Pashkovsky should become a bishop . He then returned to the United States in 1922 , received the tonsure, and was named Theophilus. At the instigation of the Holy Synod , Hieromonk Theophilus was ordained Bishop of Chicago on December 3, 1922 .

He oversaw the start of theological formation in the diocese. In 1914 the only Orthodox seminary in Tenafly , New Jersey, was closed.

Theophilus stayed in Chicago until he was called to San Francisco as bishop in 1931.

After the death of Metropolitan Plato Roshdestvensky in 1934, he was appointed as the new Metropolitan at the Fifth All-American Sobor, both by the Council of the Bishops assembled and by the entire Council .

Under his leadership the American Orthodox Church achieved some stability. Bishops' relations improved as the mortal danger to the Living Church subsided.

Theophilus strove for the unity of the Russian Diaspora : In 1935 he signed the "Provisional Regulations on the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia" (Временное Положение о Русской Православной Церкви заграницей) whereby the North American Metropolie the sovereignty of the synod in Sremski Karlovci was assumed. Nevertheless, the metropolis retained a large part of its autonomy, mainly through the influence of Theophilus himself.

Theophilus paid particular attention to church education. He established, for example, the Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and took care of the establishment of a Metropolitan Cathedral ( Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral , New York City).

The unity with the Russian Orthodox Church, however, remained fragile. At a council on 26. – 29. November 1946, the Cleveland Council passed a resolution in which they no longer recognized the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad . Metropolitan Theophilus had spoken out against it, but submitted to the decision of the council and so relations with the Russian Orthodox Church abroad were broken off.

Consequences of the unrest and episcopal problems of the 1920s persisted even during World War II and until Theophilus' death on June 27, 1950.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Constance J. Tarasar: Orthodox America, 1794-1976: Development of the Orthodox Church in America . Orthodox Church in America, Department of History and Archives, 1975, p. 200 (Retrieved August 16, 2013): “METROPOLITAN THEOPHILUS Theodore Nicholaevich Pashkovsky, the future Metropolitan Theophilus, was born into a priestly family on February 6, 1874, in the province of Kiev. He was known as a hard working and disciplined student at ... "
2. ^ Sava (Bishop of Šumadija.), Mateja Matejić: History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in America and Canada: 1891-1941 . Kalenić, 1998, p. 123 (accessed on August 16, 2013): “Theodore Nikolaevich Pashkovsky, born February 6, 1874, after graduation from the seminary married a Serbian woman. After her death he was elected and consecrated Bishop of Chicago under the name of Theophilus on December 3, 1922 ... "
3. ^ In Cleveland, Ohio, November 20, 1934 Alexis Liberovsky: Synopsis of the 5th All-American Sobor . Orthodox Church in America . Retrieved October 23, 2012.

Web links

• Constance J. Tarasar: Orthodox America 1794-1976. Development of the Orthodox Church in America Syosett, New York, The Orthodox Church in America, 1975.
• Archbishop Vitaly Maximenko Виталій (Максименко) . Памяти Митрополита Ѳеофила.
• Theophilus (Pashkovsky) of San Francisco