Philaret (Voznesensky)

Metropolitan Philaret (secular name Georgy Nikolayevich Voznesensky, Георгий Николаевич Вознесенский; 22 March 1903 in Kursk, Russia – 21 November 1985 in New York City) was the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia from 1964 until his death on November 21, 1985.

Georgy Voznesensky was born on March 22, 1903, in Kursk, Russia into a family of a priest, Father Nicholas Voznesensky and his wife Lydia.

In 1909, his family moved to Blagoveschensk on the Amur River in Siberia.

In 1920, Georgy graduated from the local gymnasium.

Later in 1920 in the midst of the Russian Civil War, his family moved to Harbin, Manchuria.

In 1921, his mother died, and his father accepted tonsure as a monk with the name Dimitri.

Dimitri later became Archbishop of Hailar.

Living in Harbin, Voznesensky entered the Russo-Chinese Polytechnic Institute from which he graduated in 1927 as an electromechanical engineer.

He was ordained a deacon in 1930 and a priest in 1931.

On 18 May 1930, he was ordained a deacon.

He served in Harbin (1931-1947), Tryokhrechye (1947-1949), then again in Harbin (1949-1962).

On 4 January 1931, he was ordained a Hieromonk.

On 12 December 1931 he was tonsured a monk with the name Philaret.

In 1931, he graduated from St. Vladimir University.

Soon afterwards, he entered the Pastoral and Theological courses at the Institute of St. Prince Vladimir.

The courses was launch by his father, Nicholas Voznesensky.

In 1933, he was elevated to hegumen and 1937 to the rank of archimandrite.

During this period he was also a professor of New Testament, Pastoral Theology, and Homiletics at St. Vladimir University.

In 1945-1962 he was a cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate.

In mid 1945, after the Communist Chinese and Soviet forces took over Manchuria at the end of World War II, archimandrite Philaret remained with the Orthodox believers in Manchuria, but he firmly rejected all attempts to get him to accept a Soviet passport.

He held passport burning bonfires after church services in defiance of the communist authorities.

Further, he fearlessly denounced the atheistic communists.

His overt position against the Soviets placed him in great personal danger.

Their hatred of him resulted in an attempt to burn him alive in his monastic cell.

He escaped, but suffered severe burns.

By that time, the Russian population was leaving China en masse, settling mostly on the West Coast of the United States or Australia.

Despite his anti-communist views and reputation as a confessor, Archimandrite Philaret had to repent that he had been under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate since 1945, and also sign a "penitential statement" in the form established by Bishops' Council of the ROCOR.

He died in 1947 shortly after he repatriated to the Soviet Union.

The Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR, aware of his irreconcilable position towards communism and the Soviet government, has been trying to rescue Archimandrite Philaret from China since 1953.

In 1962, he left China for Australia, joining the ROCOR.

It was only by 1962 that the Archimandrite Philaret could come to Hong Kong.

This statement was approved on March 29, 1962, at a meeting of the ROCOR Synod.

He arrived to Sydney on 3 April 1962.

From there archimandrite Philaret quickly traveled to Brisbane, Australia where many of his former flock in Manchuria had settled.

On October 22 of the same year, at the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR, where Archbishop Savva arrived, Archimandrite Philaret was proposed to appoint to the Diocese of Brazil, but Archbishop Savva began to insist that Archimandrite Philaret be left in Australia and appointed vicar of the Australian diocese with the title of Bishop of Brisbane.

Archbishop Savva reminded the bishops of his poor health and considered Archimandrite Philaret his possible successor, especially since many parishioners in Australia knew and respected Archimandrite Philaret, remembering his ministry in Harbin.

On May 26, 1963, he was ordained bishop of Brisbane, vicar of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand.

On May 27, 1964, being a youngest bishop by ordination, he was elected the First Hierarch of the ROCOR.

The years when Metropolitan Philaret headed the ROCOR became a period of making important decisions, including the anathematization of Lenin and the persecutors of the Orthodoxy (1970), the Canonization of the Nicholas II family and the New Martyrs (1981), the condemnation of ecumenism (1983).

Russian Church Abroad has noticeably distanced itself from world Orthodoxy, got closer to the Old Calendarists, ordained Lazar (Zhurbenko) as a bishop for the Russian "catacombs".