View the Commencement invitation

Alumnus His Eminence Metropolitan Elia, newly ordained bishop of the Diocese of Oulu of the Orthodox Church of Finland, will be the main speaker at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary's Commencement, Saturday, May 30, 2015.

"Being the 2015 Commencement speaker at my alma mater St. Vladimir's will be a great honor for me and for the Finnish Church," remarked His Eminence (SVOTS '03), upon his acceptance of the invitation by Archpriest Chad Hatfield, seminary Chancellor/CEO, and Archpriest John Behr, seminary Dean, to deliver the main Commencement address for 2015.

The former Fr. Matti was ordained to the priesthood September 1, 2003, in Jyvaskyla, Finland. He served as second priest for two and a half years in central Finland, and for eight and a half years as Dean of the Cathedral in Vaasa, western Finland. Father Matti was tonsured and elevated to the rank of archimandrite on December 16–17, 2014, in the Valamo Monastery of Transfiguration and given his new monastic name, Elia. Archimandrite Elia was recently ordained to the episcopacy on January 11, 2015, by the hand of Archbishop Leo (Makkonen) of Karelia and All Finland, along with the entire Synod of Bishops of the Finnish Church: Metropolitan Ambrosius of Helsinki, Metropolitan Panteleimon, and Bishop Arsenius of Joensuu.

Metropolitan Elia noted that his "best years and most challenging years" were when he studied at St. Vladimir's. He credited the influence of three seminary Deans—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, and Archpriest John Behr—as being key in his formation as an Orthodox priest.