Kiev, November 7, 2024
Photo: uoc-news.church
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the greatly beloved primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, turned 80 on Monday, November 5.
Met. Onuphry is recognized throughout the Orthodox Church as a meek and humble man of prayer who enjoys the devotion of the Orthodox faithful. He, in turn, is greatly devoted to his flock.
Vladyka labored in asceticism for many years at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra and the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, and has served the Church as a hierarch for over 30 years.
Hierarchs from various Local Churches, including the primates of the Georgian, Serbian, Polish, Czech-Slovak, Macedonian, and Moldovan Churches, offered congratulations to Met. Onuphry for his birthday.
His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia of Georgia writes:
Your efforts to protect universal Christian values—love for neighbor, goodness, truth ... deserve deep respect, against the background of the trials that have befallen Ukraine.
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia writes:
We pray with all our heart, first and foremost, that the God of love and the Good Shepherd would send peace to Your land, to the hearts of the flock entrusted to You, grant you inexhaustible love, bodily strength, spiritual powers, and constant help in Your difficult but God-pleasing archpastoral ministry. Many and blessed years, Your Beatitude!
His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia writes:
In these difficult times that we’re experiencing, Your dedication is a great example to us of humility, wisdom, and continuous labor. For all of us, You are a model of a good shepherd and caring father, whose unwavering faith in God helps overcome all difficulties, patiently serve your people at God’s throne, and guide the faithful to stand firm in Christ’s Truth…
May the Most Holy Theotokos, together with the host of venerable fathers of the Kiev Caves and all saints, always extend their prayerful protection over You!
And from within the Ukrainian Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye writes:
Spiritual history teaches us that in the most difficult times, the Church must be led by a person with a spiritual and prayerful heart. And I thank God that He, in His mercy, has given us a good shepherd who, in his steering of the Church ship, relies not on political, administrative, or managerial calculations, but on God’s will and His good providence…
In today’s difficult times, we must remember that it is not we who protect the Church, but it who protects us. And I am glad that thanks to the wise, prayerful leadership of our Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, we serve and pray not in a religious-political organization, not in a structure that thinks about how to please the world, but in God’s Church, which was and remains faithful to its Creator.
On this eightieth birthday, I wish to express to our dear archpastor wishes for peace of soul, quietness of heart, bright autumn clarity, bodily strength, God’s grace, and wise meekness, against which all the devil’s schemes are powerless.
***
Orest Berezovsky was born on November 5, 1944 in the Chernivtsi Province as the son of a priest. After working in construction and studying at Chernivtsi University, he enrolled in the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1969 and became a part of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius brotherhood the following year.
He was tonsured as a monk with the name Onuphry in honor of St. Onuphrius the Great on March 18, 1971. He was ordained as a hierodeacon on June 20, 1971, and as a hieromonk on May 29, 1972.
He was appointed dean of the monastery on June 28, 1985, and on Nativity the following year, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy as a candidate in theology in 1988, and after 18 years there, he returned to Ukraine to serve as abbot of the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra until he was consecrated as Bishop of Chernivtsi and Bukovina on December 9, 1990 by Metropolitan Philaret Denisenko, who later became an anathematized schismatic.
In 1992, he opposed the non-canonical actions of Met. Philaret, for which he was punished and transferred to the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese. The faithful of Chernivtsi, however, defended their beloved archpastor, and he was restored to the Chernivtsi Diocese after 2.5 months.
In 1994, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and to metropolitan in 2000. On February 24, 2014, he was elected as Locum Tenens of the primatial throne, and on August 13, 2014, he was elected the next primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
August 17, 2024, marked His Beatitude’s 10th anniversary as primate of the canonical UOC.
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