Olomouc, Moravia, Czech Republic, March 21, 2024
Photo: wikimedia.org His Eminence Archbishop Simeon of Olomouc and Brno of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia reposed in the Lord yesterday, March 19, the diocese reports.
At 98, he was the eldest hierarch of the Czech-Slovak Church. He served 66 years as a cleric, including 26 years as a hierarch.
“This year’s Holy Pascha will be celebrated by our diocesan archbishop with the angels in Heaven. We ask all clergy and faithful of our diocese to pray for his immortal soul,” the diocese writes.
His funeral will be served in the Cathedral of St. Gorazd in Olomouc on Saturday, March 23, and he will be buried in the family grave.
May Abp. Simeon’s memory be eternal!
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Abp. Simeon was born on February 12, 1926 in Prague.
He studied theology in Prague, Belgrade, and Leningrad, and later taught at theological faculties, with a special interest in the Old Testament.
He was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in 1958. On June 21, 1998, he was consecrated Bishop of Žatec, vicar to the Archbishop of Prague. His title was changed to Bishop of Mariánské Lázně later that year.
He was elected Bishop of Olomouc and Brno on April 9, 2000, and elevated to the rank of Archbishop in 2006.
In 2013, he briefly became the Metropolitan Administrator of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia after His Eminence Metropolitan Kryštof of Prague retired.
His Eminence Archbishop Rastislav of Prešov (now Metropolitan and primate of the Czech-Slovak Church) was elected Metropolitan Administrator in December of that year, though he and others, including Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, refused to recognize him.
In January 2016, an agreement was reached whereby Pat. Bartholomew agreed to cease rejecting the canonical decisions of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, including the enthronement of Met. Rastislav as primate (which took place in February 2014, with Constantinople refusing to send a delegation), and Abp. Simeon continued to govern the Diocese of Olomouc and Brno.
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