Vitaly Ustinov

Bishop Vitaly 1959

The Metropolitan Vitaly ( Russian Митрополит Виталий , Christian name Rostislav Petrovich Ustinov , Russian Ростислав Петрович Устинов ;. English Metropolitan Vitaly * 18th March 1910 in Saint Petersburg ; † 25. September 2006 in Magog , Quebec , Canada ) was the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad from 1985 until his retirement in 2001.

Life

Rostislav Petrovich Ustinov was the son of naval officer Peter Ustinov and Lydia Andreevna (nee Stopchanskaya), the daughter of the general of the Caucasus Police. In 1920 the family moved to Crimea during the Russian Civil War . He joined the Kadetskiy corpus (military school) of General Pyotr Wrangel . At the end of the year the military school with 650 cadets was relocated to Istanbul and later to Yugoslavia . In 1923 his mother called him back to Istanbul and from there they moved to Paris. The mother found her son a place in the French College de St. Louis in Le Mans . After leaving school, he lived in Cannes with his mother . In 1934 he was called up for army service and entered the Ninth Cuirassier Regiment . He served himself high up to the rank of non-commissioned officer, but turned down a further military career. He decided to leave the world and go to the monastery. Four years later he entered the monastery of St. Job in Ladomirová in the Carpathian Mountains (then on the territory of Czechoslovakia ). In 1939 Rostislav Ustinov made his profession as a monk and was given the name Vitaly. A year later he received the small scheme .

The Second World War forced the Ladomirova monastic community to leave and go to Germany. Vitaly went to Berlin with the archimandrite Nafanail (Lvov), where they did a strong missionary work among Russian refugees and prisoners of war. Nafanail and Vitaly went to Hamburg , where they helped to prevent thousands of refugees from being deported to the USSR . Vitaly became Hegumen in Hamburg and began his career in community work at Camp Fischbeck . The liturgy was celebrated every day in the barrack church. At the same time he founded a small monastic community and established a printing house in which liturgical books were printed. From 1947 to 1951 Vitaly was Prior of the London Parish , where the Archimandrite Anthony Bloom also served. However, since Vitaly did not want to recognize a bishop who was a " Soviet ", he called Anthony "the servant of satan ".

Church work

On July 12, 1951, to Peter and Paul , Vitaly was ordained Bishop of São Paulo , Vicar of the Brazilian Diocese. There the young bishop opened a printing house and founded a house for boys who were trained to be acolytes . In 1955, Vitaly and his brotherhood were transferred to Edmonton , Canada . 75 miles (120 km) away from the city he built a dormition monastery.

He was named Bishop of Montreal and Canada and then started a ski school in Mansonville, Quebec . In Montreal he built a great cathedral. His monastic farm estate and residence are in close proximity. On the farm he ran a printing shop, where, in addition to liturgical books, the magazine "The Orthodox Bulletin" was produced. The death of Metropolitan Philaret in 1985 made it necessary to elect a new Metropolitan. On January 22, 1986, Vitaly was selected as the "Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York". But he retained his power in the diocese in Canada.

In 2001 he announced his resignation and immediately after the Bishops' Council went to his residence in the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Mansonville , accompanied by his supporters.

However, after the election of the new First Hierarch of ROCOR , Laurus Schkurla , he published a letter condemning the last synod of ROKA, claiming that he continued to be the primacy of ROKA. Some clerics and lay people who fought against a union with the Patriarchate of Moscow and all of Russia formed a new administration with Metropolitan Vitaly. They called themselves the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile (ROCOR-Vitaly).

ROKA bishops claimed Vitaly was being held hostage by schismatics who took advantage of his dwindling health. The metropolis tried several times to address Vitaly. However, he could never be reached personally. He died on September 25, 2006 and was buried in his Skite in Mansonville. Since ROKA bishops were not allowed to attend the funeral, they celebrated their own funeral service separately.

See also

• White emigré

Web links

• Official Site of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

predecessor	Office	successor
Philaret Voznesensky	Metropolitan of Eastern American & New York 1985-2001	Laurus Schkurla