His Grace Bishop Vasily was born to a Russian family in Riga, Latvia, and relocated to the United States in 1999 after completing his undergraduate studies. He entered Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) in Yonkers, NY with the blessing of late Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas. After finishing seminary, he enrolled in a doctoral program in Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where in 2012 he defended his dissertation on the history and origins of the Byzantine rite for the consecration of churches. He taught at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, NY) from 2011 to 2020, and joined the full-time faculty at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary in August 2020.
He was tonsured to the ecclesiastical rank of reader in the Orthodox Church in America at Three Hierarchs Chapel, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, in 2002. In 2021, on the Feast of the Annunciation, he was ordained subdeacon, also at Three Hierarchs Chapel. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2021, again at the Seminary chapel, he was ordained to the holy diaconate through the hand of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon. Three years later, His Beatitude ordained him to the priesthood on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2024, at Three Hierarchs Chapel. On January 17 2025, he was tonsured to the small schema at Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery (South Canaan, PA) with the name Vasily.
On April 12, 2025, during the Divine Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday at Three Hierarchs Chapel, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by the hand of His Eminence Bishop Daniel, in accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of the OCA in March, 2025, on behalf of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada (OCA).
On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, during the 21st All-American Council, the Diocese of the West convened a Special Diocesan Assembly under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, Locum Tenens of the Diocese, to consider the nomination of a new bishop following the retirement of His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin on July 15, 2025. The Assembly nominated the Very Reverend Archimandrite Vasily (Permiakov) as their candidate for Bishop of San Francisco and the West. That same day, the Holy Synod of Bishops, meeting in a Special Summer Session under the presidency of Metropolitan Tikhon, canonically elected Archimandrite Vasily as Bishop of San Francisco and the West. His Grace was ordained to the episcopate on Saturday, August 16, 2025.