Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2023 2:44:37 GMT
Today is the 79th birthday of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His Beatitude has led the UOC, which is by far the largest Christian Church in Ukraine, since 2014. He has led his Church in the most difficult period of its history, especially now, as the Ukrainian government is trying to ban it for no reason whatsoever.
Metropolitan Onufriy was born in Chernivtsi in the Ukrainian Republic of the USSR in 1944, during the Great Patriotic War. His father was an Orthodox priest. He came of age during the terrible persecution unleashed against the Orthodox Church by Nikita Khrushchev, where over two thirds of all Orthodox parishes in the USSR were closed. After the end of the persecution, he entered the Moscow Theological Academy, and was ordained in 1972. He lived as a monk at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the centre of Russian monasticism, near Moscow from 1970-1988, when he moved back to Ukraine.
In 1990, he was consecrated bishop. In 2014 - elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Presiding over the Orthodox Ukrainian Church, he demonstrated the most correct and logical approach. He is a very holy, saintly man - in Ukraine and Russia he is considered a "starets", a holy elder monk. Though he spent two decades in Russia, he is a Ukrainian at heart - indeed, he comes from Chernivtsi in western Ukraine, far from the Russian-leaning regions in the east and south of the nation. He loves Ukraine so much, and from the first days of the Russian invasion, he called on the faithful to defend their motherland. He appealed to President Putin multiple times to stop, but his calls were not heeded.
Ad multos annos to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy!
Metropolitan Onufriy was born in Chernivtsi in the Ukrainian Republic of the USSR in 1944, during the Great Patriotic War. His father was an Orthodox priest. He came of age during the terrible persecution unleashed against the Orthodox Church by Nikita Khrushchev, where over two thirds of all Orthodox parishes in the USSR were closed. After the end of the persecution, he entered the Moscow Theological Academy, and was ordained in 1972. He lived as a monk at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the centre of Russian monasticism, near Moscow from 1970-1988, when he moved back to Ukraine.
In 1990, he was consecrated bishop. In 2014 - elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Presiding over the Orthodox Ukrainian Church, he demonstrated the most correct and logical approach. He is a very holy, saintly man - in Ukraine and Russia he is considered a "starets", a holy elder monk. Though he spent two decades in Russia, he is a Ukrainian at heart - indeed, he comes from Chernivtsi in western Ukraine, far from the Russian-leaning regions in the east and south of the nation. He loves Ukraine so much, and from the first days of the Russian invasion, he called on the faithful to defend their motherland. He appealed to President Putin multiple times to stop, but his calls were not heeded.
Ad multos annos to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy!