Moscow, November 6, 2026
Photo: patriarchia.ru
His Eminence Schema-Metropolitan Platon (Udovenko), a retired hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, reposed in the Lord today at an emergency care center in Moscow.
Metropolitan Platon, formerly of the Crimean Metropolitanate, was 85 years old, reports Patriarchia.ru.
He served as a hierarch in the Russian and Ukrainian Churches for more than 50 years.
May Schema-Metropolitan Platon’s memory be eternal!
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Metropolitan Platon was born on November 17, 1940, in Uspenka, Voroshilovgrad Province, Ukraine. After finishing school in 1957, he entered the Dormition Monastery in Odessa as a novice.
From 1958, he studied at the Kiev Theological Seminary, and after it closed in 1960, at the Odessa Theological Seminary. In 1965, after graduating from the seminary, he entered the Leningrad Theological Academy, graduating in 1969 with the degree of Candidate of Theology.
In 1969–1972, he was an assistant at the Department for External Church Relations, and in 1972, he completed postgraduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy.
On April 14, 1971, he was tonsured a monk, on April 17, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and on September 12, a hieromonk.
On November 3, 1972, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and sent to serve in the Argentine Diocese.
On December 16, 1973, at the Theophany Cathedral in Moscow, he was consecrated Bishop of Argentina and South America.
In 1977, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop and appointed Patriarchal Exarch for Central and South America. From 1980, he was Archbishop of Sverdlovsk and Kurgan, administering the Chelyabinsk Diocese.
From 1981 to 1986, he served as Deputy Chairman of the DECR.
From December 1984, he served as Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov. On November 1, 1993, he was again appointed to the Argentine See.
On February 29, 2004, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.
On July 26, 2012, the Holy Synod blessed him to serve in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, where he was later appointed administrator of the newly formed Feodosia Diocese in Crimea.
On June 7, 2022, the Russian Holy Synod took direct control of the Crimean Dioceses, including the Feodosia Diocese under Metropolitan Platon.
On July 25, 2024, the Holy Synod retired Metropolitan Platon, designating Crimea as his place of residence.
On July 23, 2026, at the Sechenov Clinical Center in Moscow, he was tonsured into the great schema and given the name of the Martyr Plato of Ancyra.
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