Dzyatlava, Belarus, June 8, 2020
Photo: church.by
On Saturday, June 6, His Grace Schema-Bishop Peter of Dzyatlava, vicar of the Novogrudok Diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, reposed in the Lord after a long and serious illness complicated by the coronavirus, reports the site of the Belarusian Church.
In his condolences, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk noted that Bp. Peter did much for the revival of Church life in his native Belarus.
“In the last years of his life, suffering from a serious illness, Vladyka patiently and uncomplainingly bore the cross sent to him from above. Taking upon himself the special podvig of the Great Schema, he gave those around him an example of humility, meekness, and trust in the mercy of God,” writes the primate of the Belarusian Church.
And in his condolences, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia recalled Bp. Peter’s many labors for the sake of Christ and His Church, and called on “the merciful Lord to forgive His departed servant every sin and grant him the joy of eternal life.”
Bp. Peter is fourth hierarch of the Russian Church to succumb to the coronavirus, and the sixth Orthodox hierarch overall, following His Grace Bishop Milutin of Valjevo of the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Grace Bishop Benjamin of Zheleznogorsk and His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah (Karpukhin) of the Russian Church, His Eminence Archbishop Pimen of Suceava and Rădăuți of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and His Eminence Metropolitan Barnabas of Cheboksary and Chuvash of the Russian Church.
May Bp. Peter’s memory be eternal!
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His Grace Bishop Peter (in the world Viktor Petrovich Karpusyuk) was born on Janury 5, 1959 in the Brest Province. He was raised in the Christian faith from childhood. After high school he served in the army, near the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad, where he took every opportunity to visit the monastery and entreat St. Sergius to accept him at the seminary located on the territory of the monastery.
Following his military service, he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1982. He was then tonsured as a monk and ordained a hierodeacon and entered the Moscow Theological Academy.
As a student of the Academy, he served as subdeacon to His Holiness Patriarch Pimen of Moscow and All Russia. In 1986, he graduated from the Academy with a PhD in theology. He continued to serve in the Patriarchate and at the Lavra and was elevated to the rank of archimandrite several years later.
On July 17, 1992, he was appointed as Bishop of Turov and Mozyr. He was consecrated in the Holy Protection Cathedral in Vitebsk, Belarus on July 24, 1992.
On April 11, 2006, the Holy Synod appointed him as Bishop of Drutsk, vicar of the Vitebsk Diocese. On December 26, 2013, he was appointed Bishop of Smorgon, vicar of the Diocese of Novogrudok. On December 25, 2014, he was given the title “of Dzyatlava,” while remaining a vicar of the Novogrudok Diocese.
On March 19, 2016, he was tonsured into the Great Schema with name Peter in honor of the New Martyr St. Peter of Krutsitsa.
Bp. Peter received a number of Church awards from the Russian and Belarusian Churches for his diligent service to the Lord over the decades.
