Christopher (metropolitan of the Czech lands and Slovakia)

Born June 29, 1953 in Prague. By nationality - Czech . His father was an old Catholic priest

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According to his recollections, “I went to seminary only because no higher school would have accepted me then. At that time, in order to enter the institute somewhere, it was necessary to fill in the questionnaire in the application form on your consent to the entry of the Warsaw Pact troops into the territory of my country. I did not agree with the violence. Never. Having learned that in the seminary at the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Charles University there is no such question in the questionnaire, but, as I was told, more complex, according to the Holy Scriptures, I entered there. Thus, by the will of God, my priestly path began ” ^[1] .

In November 11, 1974, he was ordained deacon , and on December 25, he was ordained a priest ^[2] .

In 1979 he graduated from the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Presov .

In 1984 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy .

September 7, 1985 took monastic tonsure in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra with the name Christopher in honor of the Monk Christopher the Roman .

In 1987 he graduated from the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens , becoming the first Czechoslovak citizen to receive a Ph.D.

In 1986, Metropolitan Dorofei (Philip) was elevated to the rank of hegumen , in 1987 the same bishop was elevated to the rank of archimandrite ^[3] .

Czechoslovak State Security Officer

In the lists of the Czech Security Service Archive Radim Pulec there is recorded as agent StB (Czech Agent), number 7674 under cover as Dalimil (Czech Dalimil). Further, Pulec worked as an active information collector (Czech Důvěrník), nicknamed Radim (Czech Radim) and as a secret officer (Czech Tajný spolupracovník) - nickname Dalimil. ^[four]

Bishops

On April 17, 1988, he was consecrated bishop of Olomouc-Brno .

On March 11, 2000, he was elected Archbishop of Prague on March 25 of the same year at the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop .

On May 2, 2006, he was elected Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia . The candidates for election were Archbishop Christopher and Archbishop John of Presov (there was a relative majority of votes on his side). During the two rounds of voting, none of the two candidates received the necessary two-thirds majority of the members of the council for the election. Therefore, in accordance with the charter of the Church, the election was made by lot. The intronization took place on May 28 in the Prague Cathedral in the name of Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius.

July 3, 2011 took part in the festivities on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the First Hierarch's intronization of Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria, held at the Patriarchal Cathedral in the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky in Sofia ^[5] .

For about ten years, he taught the Hebrew language and the history of Local Churches at the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Prešov University.

On December 8, 2011, the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia celebrated 60 years of its autocephaly granted to him in 1951 by the Moscow Patriarchate. On this festive day, Metropolitan Christopher served the Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. Nicholas on Old Town Square and was served by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (Alfeyev) , as well as other clergy of the Russian Church. The Moscow Synodal Choir took part in this service, which performed the hymns of the Divine Liturgy, written by P.I. Tchaikovsky and first performed in this church back in 1888. Metropolitan Hilarion also announced the congratulatory message of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill in honor of the 60th anniversary of the gift of autocephaly and presented the Metropolitan Christopher the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The celebrations were attended by representatives of other Orthodox Churches and other denominations of the Czech Republic ^[6] .

On February 6, 2012, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople unexpectedly sent Metropolitan Christopher an open letter (No. 102) expressing not only extreme indignation at the celebrations held three months ago, but also a direct threat to cancel the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, citing the fact that Constantinople itself The Patriarchate recognized autocephaly of the Czechoslovak Church only on August 27, 1998 in the special Patriarchal Tomos, and therefore, from the point of view of Patriarch Bartholomew himself, the Czech Republic and Slovakia received whether it is from their autocephalous Patriarchate of Constantinople ^[6] .

Retirement

On April 2, 2013, the Nova TV channel released a story in which it accused the 59-year-old Metropolitan Christopher of having surrounded himself with many young mistresses and who supposedly gave birth to his children.

April 12, 2013 at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in the Czech lands and Slovakia, he petitioned for dismissal from his post. The petition was granted ^[7] . Metropolitan Christopher was granted the title of Honorary Archbishop of Prague and Metropolitan of the Czech Republic and Slovakia with the determination of his place of residence in the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Tesov ^[8] . As Metropolitan Christopher said in an interview with Soyuz television, if he had not left, a split would have occurred in the Church ^[9] .

At the same time, part of the parishioners of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia rejected these accusations, calling them slander, and the reason for their appearance was the struggle for the money that the Orthodox Church received for restitution .

Thus, it is noted that the Orthodox Church receives financial compensation from the state in the total amount of CZK 1.140 million, and when deciding to use this money, Bishop Christopher, who intends to invest it mainly in humanitarian and charitable purposes, can become a serious obstacle ^[10] . Previously, information appeared on the Internet that the acting representative of the official Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands, Archbishop Simeon (Yakovlevich) of Olomouc-Brno, told media representatives

that Ksenia Raptsunova, who accused the archbishop Christopher, admitted to deceit and perjury ^[11] .

In May 2013, the collection of signatures began in the Czech Republic for the return of Metropolitan Christopher to re-head the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia ^[12] .

• 2007 - Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, I degree with a ribbon ( ROC ) ^[13] .
• 2011 - Synodal Znamensky Order of the 1st degree ( ROCOR ) - into account the work to strengthen unity within the Orthodox Church ^[14]
• 2011 - Order “Algys” (“Thanksgiving”) ( Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan ) - for the development of fraternal relations between the Czech Orthodox Church and the Metropolitan District ^[15] .
• 2012 - Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene ( Polish Orthodox Church ) ^[16] .

• Official site of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
• The enthronement of His Beatitude Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia Christopher
• Press Conference of His Beatitude Christopher, Archbishop of Prague, Metropolitan of the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• His Beatitude Metropolitan Christopher on Orthodoxy in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Orthodox life and mission, Holy Russia, ROA, Russians and much more
• Archbishop of Prague and Czech lands Christopher (Pulec)
• Metropolitan Christopher: The bishop must humble himself and love
• Interview with the Metropolitan of Czech lands and Slovakia His Beatitude Christopher: about the Church and about himself