Hilarion

Hilarion (secular name Grigory Valerievich Alfeyev, Григо́рий Вале́риевич Алфе́ев; 24 July 1966) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and the current metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary.

He is also a noted theologian, church historian and composer and has published books on dogmatic theology, patristics and church history as well as numerous compositions for choir and orchestra.

Grigoriy Valerievich Alfeyev was born on 24 July 1966 in Moscow.

From 1972 to 1982 he studied violin, piano and composition at the Moscow Gnessins School and from 1983 to 1986 at the Moscow State Conservatoire.

From 1984 to 1986 he served in the Soviet military.

In January 1987, after serving in the military, he became a monk (see below under Church activity).

In January 1987 he entered the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he was tonsured as a monk on 19 June, ordained a deacon on 21 June and ordained priest on 19 August in the same year.

In 1989 graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and in 1991 from the Moscow Theological Academy with the degree of Master of Theology.

From 1991 to 1993 he taught homiletics, dogmatic theology, New Testament studies and Byzantine Greek at the Moscow Theological Academy, St Tikhon's Theological Institute and St John the Theologian's Orthodox University.

Until 1991 he served as a parish priest in Lithuania, including two years as dean of Annunciation Cathedral in Kaunas.

From 1993 to 1995 he studied at the University of Oxford (UK) under the supervision of Bishop Kallistos Ware.

In 1995 he completed his doctoral thesis on "St Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition" and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

From 1995 to 2001 Alfeyev served as Secretary for Inter-Christian Affairs of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

He also taught part-time at Smolensk and Kaluga Theological Seminaries (Russia), at St Vladimir's and St Herman's Theological Seminary (USA) and at Cambridge University (UK).

Apart from his doctoral degree in philosophy from Oxford, Alfeyev also holds a doctorate in theology from St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, which was awarded to him in 1999.

Alfeyev is the author of more than a thousand publications, including fourteen monographs in English: St Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2000), welcomed by the press, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian (Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI, 2000), ''The Mystery of Faith.

On 27 December 2001 he was nominated bishop.

On 14 January 2002 he was consecrated by Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, and 10 other hierarchs.

Appointed Assistant (Vicar) Bishop in the Diocese of Sourozh in the UK, but as a result of an acute conflict situation around him and at Metropolitan Anthony's request, the Holy Synod decided, only a few months later, on 17 July 2002, that he was to be transferred and nominated as Head of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions in Brussels.

An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002), Orthodox Witness Today'' (WCC Publications, 2006), ,

''Christ the Conqueror of Hell.

On 7 May 2003 appointed Bishop of Vienna and Austria, administrator of the Diocese of Budapest and Hungary, in addition to his position in Brussels, which he continues to hold.

In February 2005 he was elected a privat-dozent of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).

Alfeyev is author of numerous musical compositions.

His St Matthew Passion, grand oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra, received a standing ovation at its performances at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory (27 March 2007), at the Auditorium Conciliazione, Rome (29 March 2007), and at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne (28 September 2007).

During 2009-2022 he was the titular metropolitan of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and rector of the church-wide postgraduate and doctoral studies named after Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal to the Apostles.

In June 2022, following a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hilarion was removed from his position as president of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow and dismissed as Metropolitan of Volokolamsk.

He was appointed to the Metropolis of Budapest-Hungary.

On March 31, 2009, appointed the Bishop of Volokolamsk, the Vicar to the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, the chairman of the Department of the External Church Relations (the position previously held by the current Patriarch Kirill), and a permanent member of the Holy Synod, ex officio.

On Easter Monday, 2009 was raised to an archbishop by Patriarch Kirill during the Divine Liturgy in The Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

The Descent into Hell in Orthodox Tradition (St Vladimir's Press, 2009), Orthodox Christianity, vol. 1-5 (St Vladimir's Press, 2011–19), Prayer: Encounter with the Living God (St Vladimir's Press, 2015), Jesus Christ, His Life and Teaching'', vols.

On 1 February 2010, at a Liturgy to celebrate the first anniversary of the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, he was raised to the rank of Metropolitan.

In an interview given on 19 July 2010, Alfeyev said: "The Orthodox Church as a whole does not have a unified structural or administrative format. Administratively, it is, if one can say so, a confederation of autocephalous, that is, completely independent of one another, Orthodox Churches. (...) Problems arising in relations between Orthodox Churches are not theological or dogmatic in nature, but rather pertaining, for instance, to who should govern particular territories. Historically, some regions in different times were parts of different Local Churches. And today there may be two Churches who claim a particular region. (...) In the 1990s, we had a very difficult streak in relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who unilaterally created its own church jurisdiction in our canonical territory, namely, in Estonia. It happened because in the 20s and 30s the Estonian Orthodox Church was temporarily part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Because of this, our relations with Constantinople were suspended for several months.

They were restored later but remained tense.

The Estonian problem still exists but recently His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has made some steps towards the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the express purpose of relieving the tension (...)."

In general, opinions on such matters among Orthodox Christians vary.

In late 2018, Alfeyev visited North Korea, meeting with officials and leading a service at the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang.

I-IV (St Vladimir's Press, 2019–21).

His books have also been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Greek, Serbian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Czech, Swedish, Estonian, Georgian, Armenian (see below).