Metropolitan Ioann (Vasiliy Bodnarchuk)

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Metropolitan Ioann (Bodnarchuk)
Metropolitan Ioann (Bodnarchuk)
Born	12 April 1929(1929-04-12) Ternopil region
Died	9 November 1994 (aged 65)

Metropolitan Ioann (Vasyl’ Bodnarchuk) secular name Bodnarchuk Vasyl’ Ivanovych. (Ukrainian: Боднарчук Василь Іванович). (12 April 1929 - 9 November 1994), was born in the Ternopil area of Western Ukraine, which at that time was a territory of Poland, into a family of Greek-Catholics. Early in his childhood he converted to Orthodoxy. In 1949 he was arrested for his pro Ukrainian nationalistic rhetoric and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in the copper mines of Steplag Karaganda. His family was deported to Kazakhstan where they lived until 1953. Later that year he was released on amnesty. In 1956, he was accepted into the Leningrad Theological Seminary and in 1958 he became a deacon. After graduating the Seminary in 1960, he was accepted into the Leningrad Theological Academy and in 1961 he became a priest. In 1964 he graduated the Academy with a PhD in Divinity. He was sent to the Lviv and Ternopil diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate. He served as a priest in the village of Striivka, Zbarazhskiy which is in the Ternopil region. In 1968 he served in a parish in the Lviv region. In 1977 he took his monastic vows and was awarded the title of Archimandrite. Later this year, by the decision of the Holy Synod of Moscow Patriarchate, he became a bishop of Zhitomir and Ovruch. In 1989 he was released from management of the diocese on the basis of health problems and granted a leave of absence. In the same year he left the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate he created the Ukrainian Autocephalic Apostolic Orthodox Church where he became Primate of this jurisdiction. In 1992 he was excluded from the clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church where he repented and submitted an application on returning to the Moscow Patriarchate. But, before the decision was made on his behalf, Metropolitan Ioann changed his mind and recalled his petition. Instead, he joined the Ukrainian Orthodox Church –Kiev Patriarchate and was appointed as Metropolitan of Drahobych and Sambor, later he would be appointed – Metropolitan of Lutsk and Volyn. He died in a car accident in 1994.