Moscow, October 21, 2020
Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, the former Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Commission on Family and Motherhood and Childhood Protection, and one of the most beloved and authoritative, and at times provocative priests in the Russian Orthodox Church, has reposed in the Lord.
Fr. Dmitry was 69 years old. He was especially known for his tireless labors against abortion and in support of mothers and families.
See our article, “How Fr. Dmitry Smirnov Convinces Women Not to Have an Abortion, and Ten Questions That Can Keep a Woman from Abortion.”
His repose was reported to RIA-Novosti by Vasily Rulinsky, the press secretary of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, who noted that Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo, the Chairman of the Church Charity Department, has already served a panikhida for the repose of Fr. Dmitry’s soul.
Fr. Dmitry was hospitalized in May with complications from the coronavirus. In August, he was released from his position as Commission Chairman due to his health, and last month he was hospitalized again.
May his memory be eternal!
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Photo: Facebook Fr. Dmitry was born in Moscow on March 7, 1951. He was the great grandson of Hieromartyr Vasily Smirnov.
He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1980 and from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1982. He was ordained as a priest on August 2, 1979. In 1980, he was appointed rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in northern Moscow.
On January 1, 1991, he was appointed rector of the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh in Moscow, where he served until recently. He also ministered to 8 other churches in Moscow and the Moscow Province.
He was the co-Chairman of the Church-Public Council for Biomedical Ethics of the Moscow Patriarchate and a member of the editorial board of the journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. He founded an Orthodox movement involved in the fight against abortion and opposition to juvenile justice, and created the Orthodox medical-education center “Life,” to save unborn children from abortion.
Fr. Dmitry proposed a number of measures to support families, including tax cuts for large families, calculating the subsistence minimum not for an individual, but for a family with several children, and calculating pensions based on the number of children born and raised, and an unqualified accounting of the entire period of child care in the insurance system.
The Church of St. Mitrophan, which he pastored for many years, has an Orthodox children’s home on its territory and 4 other orphanages.
He also headed the Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies from 2003 to 2013.
