Orlov, Kirov Province, Russia, April 24, 2026
Photo: orel-eparhia.ru His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony (Cheremisov), one of the most senior hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, reposed in the Lord on April 23, at the age of 86.
Metropolitan Anthony spent 37 years in the episcopal order, actively serving in several dioceses from his consecration in 1989 until his retirement in 2019.
May Met. Anthony’s memory be eternal!
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Met. Anthony was born on November 6, 1939, in the village of Ternovka, Voronezh Province, into a worker’s family. In 1957, he entered the Minsk Theological Seminary.
From 1965 to 1968, he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary, and then at the Moscow Theological Academy, which he graduated from in 1972 with a degree of Candidate of Theology.
In 1972, he entered postgraduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy and worked in the Department of External Church Relations. From 1972 to 1975, he trained at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey (Switzerland), which he graduated from with a bachelor’s degree. During his years of study, he served as personal secretary to Metropolitan Juvenaly (Poyarkov).
On April 7, 1971, he was tonsured a monk with the name Anthony at the Moscow Theological Academy. On April 14, 1971, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and on November 4, 1972, a hieromonk.
From 1975, he served as dean of the Vilnius Holy Spirit Monastery, and from 1979 as rector of the Kaunas Annunciation Cathedral and dean of the churches of the Kaunas district.
On April 8, 1979, he was elevated to the rank of igumen.
From 1982 to 1985, he served as deputy rector of the Patriarchal Representation in Tokyo.
From November 1986 to April 1989, he was dean of the Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow.
On March 24, 1987, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
On April 22, 1989, he was consecrated Bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania at the Trinity Cathedral of Danilov Monastery. On January 25, 1990, he was transferred to the Tobolsk See, and on July 20 of the same year to Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei.
On February 19, 1999, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
On October 5-6, 2011, he was appointed to the Orlov Diocese.
On July 25, 2014, he was appointed head of the newly formed Orlov Metropolitanate, and on August 28, 2014, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.
On February 26, 2019, he was granted retirement by the Holy Synod.
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