Metropolitan Krystof of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia to receive honorary doctorate

YONKERS, NY [SVOTS]—On Monday, February 28th at 5:00 p.m., His Beatitude, Metropolitan Krystof, Primate of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree at an Academic Convocation held in his honor on the campus of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary here.

His Beatitude will deliver an address to the seminary community during the ceremonious occasion. The convocation, which is open to the public, will be held in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building.

“To receive a Primate of an autocephalous Orthodox Church at our school is a rare blessing,” said Archpriest Chad Hatfield, Chancellor of Saint Vladimir’s. “His Beatitude, who is fluent in English, is known for his many academic pursuits and for his role as the Chief Pastor of a Church that in many ways mirrors the interests of our American Orthodox parishes. We look forward to his visit.”

His Beatitude is in the United States on an official visit to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia [ROCOR], and he will be greeted in New York by His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Besides his visit to Saint Vladimir’s, he will also visit Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY; will officiate at the Divine Liturgy at the ROCOR Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in New York City; and will meet with His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.v

At Saint Vladimir’s, he will meet with Father Chad, as well as Archpriest John Behr, Dean.

Metropolitan Krystof was born in Praque in 1953. He studied at the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Presov, Czechoslovakia, after which he completed graduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy and at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, Greece. In 1985 he was tonsured to monastic orders at the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery in Sergiev-Posad, Russia, taking the name Krystof. Two years later, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and he served at Prague’s Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. In 1988, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Dorotheus presided at his consecration to the episcopacy and election as Bishop of Olomouc and Brno. After the repose of Metropolitan Dorotheus in 2000, he was named Archbishop of Prague and the Czech Lands, and he oversaw the work of the Church’s Metropolitan Council. He then was elected by council delegates to become the fifth Primate of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, which was granted autocephaly by the Patriarch of Moscow in 1951.