Berlin, September 11, 2017
Photo: foma.ru The ruling hierarch of Berlin and Germany of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop Theophan, departed in the Lord today, in his 64th year of life, reports Igumen Daniel Irbits, the archbishop’s secretary and abbot of St. George Monastery in Hetzendorf, on his Facebook page.
“It’s hard for me to gather my thoughts now; it pains me to write these lines… Today at 3:00 PM, after a prolonged illness, our Archbishop Theophan of Berlin and Germany departed to the Lord… Please pray!” Fr. Daniel announced on social media.
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Archbishop Theophan (Oleg Ivanovich Galinsky in the world) was born on July 8, 1954, in the city of White Church in the Kiev Province of Ukraine. After graduating from middle school, he studied in the Dnipropetrovsk chemical-technological institute.
In 1972, he entered the Leningrad Theological Seminary, and then the Leningrad Theological Academy.
On January 4, 1976, he was tonsured as a monk, on January 7 he was ordained as a hierodeacon, and on April 17, 1977 as a hieromonk.
In 1977, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy with a kandidat degree in theology, and was appointed as a lecturer and assistant inspector of the academy.
In 1977-1979, he was trained in the Eastern Church Institute in Regensburg, Germany, and then taught in the Leningrad theological schools.
In 1980, he was elected secretary of the board of the Leningrad Theological Academy, and head of the liturgics department. In January 1985, he was appointed acting inspector of the Leningrad theological schools.
On February 1985, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. From April 1985, he served as professor, and from August as the inspector of the Leningrad theological schools. On February 7, 1986, he was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations.
On January 11, 1987 he was consecrated as the bishop of Kashira, Russia, a vicar of the Moscow Diocese. On July 19, 1988 he was appointed as the rector of the Russian podvoriye in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
From January 31, 1991 he served as the locum tenens of the Berlin-Leipzig Diocese, and from December 25, 1991 as the ruling hierarch. As of December 22, 1992, he served as the bishop of Berlin and Germany. On February 23, 1996 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop.
From February 26, 1994, he served as a member of the Synodal Theological Commission.
By decision of the Holy Synod on May 5, 2015, Abp. Theophan became the official representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in Germany.
May his memory be eternal!