Metropolitan Antony of Kiev ( secular name Aleksey Pavlovich Khrapovitsky, ; 17 March 1863 – 10 August 1936) was a Russian Orthodox metropolitan bishop

Metropolitan bishop

In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...

, founder of Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia , also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA, or ROCOR) is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church....

.

Biography

He was born Aleksey Pavlovich Khrapovitsky in Vatagino (near Novgorod) to a family with a noble background. and studied theology at Saint Petersburg Theological Academy

Saint Petersburg Theological Academy

The Saint Petersburg Theological Academy is a theological seminary in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The academy grants master and doctorate degrees preparing theologians and priests for the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was founded in 1797 by Gabriel , Metropolitan of Saint Petersburg, as part of the...

. In 1885 he became a monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 and took the name Antony in honor of St. Antony the Roman of Novgorod. He taught briefly at the Academy where he had studied, and then at academies in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

. In 1897 he became vicar-bishop of Kazan, in 1900 bishop of Ufa

Ufa

-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...

, and in 1902 bishop of Volhynia

Volhynia

Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...

 and Zhitomir. In this position he suppressed the Eastern Catholics of Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 as well as nationalism

Ukrainian nationalism

Ukrainian nationalism refers to the Ukrainian version of nationalism.Although the current Ukrainian state emerged fairly recently, some historians, such as Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Orest Subtelny and Paul Magosci have cited the medieval state of Kievan Rus' as an early precedents of specifically...

 within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the three major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Close to ten percent of the Christian population claim to be members of the UAOC. The other Churches are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Russophile Orthodox...

.

In 1912 he was elected to the Holy Synod

Holy Synod

In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod...

 of the Russian Orthodox Church. Two years later he became Archbishop of Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

, and in 1918 became metropolitan of Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

.

When the Bolshevik Revolution came he fled for Sremski Karlovci

Sremski Karlovci

Sremski Karlovci is a town and municipality in Serbia, in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, situated on the bank of the river Danube, 8 km from Novi Sad...

, Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, and in 1920 became leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in exile.

He was famous as a polemicist who argued against papal supremacy

Papal supremacy

Papal supremacy refers to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that the pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire Christian Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief,...

.

Sources

• Antony Khrapovitsky at Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• Metropolitan Antony of Kiev and Galicia at Orthodox England

External links

• Anthony Khrapovitsky of Kiev at OrthodoxWiki