Munich, January 30, 2026
Photo: YouTube
His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany turned 85 yesterday.
He is the elder hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia both in terms of age and years in the episcopal ministry, and among the eldest in the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole.
He was consecrated as Vicar Bishop of Munich and Southern Germany in November 1980 and has been the ruling bishop of Berlin and Germany since 1982.
“I am deeply grateful to you, holy Vladyka,” writes His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, the First Hierarch of ROCOR in his greetings to Met. Mark, “for your invaluable archpastoral care over the flock entrusted to you, for your love, support, and guidance, for your active participation in the work of the Synod of Bishops, and for the evident example of a zealous practitioner of monastic duties and service to God, the Church, the clergy, and the faithful.”
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Met. Mark was born in then-East Germany in 1941 and moved to the west in 1954, settling in Frankfurt am Main. He studied Slavic languages and completed his doctorate in Ancient Russian Literature, entering the Orthodox Church in 1964 and later enrolling in the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade. There he came under the influence of the renowned Serbian Orthodox Theologian St. Justin Popović, and he decided to enter the monastic life.
He was tonsured by Bishop Paul of Stuttgart in 1975 and ordained a priest in 1976. Four years later, Fr. Mark was consecrated as Vicar Bishop of Munich and Southern Germany in November 1980, and he moved the bishop’s residence to the Monastery of St. Job of Pochaev where he revived the monastery along Athonite lines. Since 1982, he has been ruling bishop of Berlin and Germany, and in 1991 was elevated to the rank of Archbishop. In 1997 he was appointed overseer of the Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, which role he still fulfils.
From 1986 to 2017 His Eminence additionally served as ruling hierarch of the Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland. The current Diocesan Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God and Holy Royal Martyrs in Chiswick, London, was constructed at Vladyka Mark’s initiative and under his careful guidance.
In 2019, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.
Met. Mark is an authority on Church dogmatics, canons and liturgical life.
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