Moscow, January 25, 2024
Photo: blagovest-info.ru
His Grace Bishop Irinarch of Ramenskoye, 73, of the Russian Orthodox Church reposed in the Lord yesterday following a long illness.
Vladyka Irinarch served the Church as a bishop for 22 years, and was also the head of the Synodal Department for Prison Ministry, reports patriarchia.ru.
May Bp. Irinarch’s memory be eternal!
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Bp. Irinarch was born on November 23, 1951, in the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. After school and a few years of work, he was drafted into the Soviet army.
He then worked at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in 1974-1975, and in 1975-1978, he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary there, followed by the Academy in 1978-1982. He received the degree of Candidate of Theology for his thesis, “Patristic Dogmatic Systems.” He then studied at the Academy as a post-grad student.
In October 1982, he began working at the Department for External Church Relations. On April 3, 1985, he was tonsured as a monk with the name Irinarch. He was ordained a hierodeacon on April 13, 1985, and a hieromonk two days later.
He later studied at Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham and the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey in Geneva. He also attended lectures at the Harvard Theological School and the University of Cambridge.
In 1988, he was elevated to the rank of igumen. Beginning in 1989, he supervised the DECR’s program for combating alcoholism and drug addiction. On March 1, 1990, he was appointed rector of a hospital church in Moscow.
In. 1990-1991, he was secretary of the Synod’s Commission on Charity and Catechesis and the Commission for Assistance in Overcoming the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident.
Together with his parish ministry, he also chaired the Joy and Consolation Orthodox Brotherhood of Sobriety. He also later became a member of the Moscow City Council Commission for Patients with Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.
On March 16, 2002, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and on April 14, he was consecrated Bishop of Perm. On March 5, 2010, he was appointed Bishop of Krasnogorsk, vicar of the Moscow Diocese, and chairman of the newly formed Synodal Department for Prison Ministry. He also became chairman of the comparable department of the Moscow Diocese.
On April 13, 2021, the Holy Synod gave him the title Bishop of Ramenskoye.
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