On Monday, February 28th at 5 p.m., His Beatitude, Metropolitan Krystof, primate of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree at an Academic Convocation held in his honor on our campus. His Beatitude will deliver an address to the seminary community during the cermonious occasion. The convocation, which is open to the public, will be held in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building.

"To receive a primate of an autocephalous Orthodox Church at our school is a rare blessing," said Archpriest Chad Hatfield, chancellor of St. Vladimir's. "His Beatitude, who is fluent in English, is known for his many academic pursuits and for his role as the Chief Pastor of a Church that in many ways mirrors the interests of our American Orthodox parishes. We look forward to his visit."

His Beatitude is in the United States on an official visit to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), and he will be greeted in New York by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. Besides his visit to St. Vladimir's, he will also visit Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY; will officiate at the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in New York City; and will meet with His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. At St. Vladimir's, he will meet with our Dean, Archpriest John Behr, and our Chancellor, Archpriest Chad Hatfield, and the faculty and students of the seminary.

Metropolitan Krystof was born "Radim Pulets" in Praque in 1953. He studied at the Orthdoox Theological Faculty in Presov, Czechoslovakia, after which he completed graduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy and at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, Greece. In 1985 he was tonsured to monastic orders at the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery in Sergiev-Posad, Russia, taking the name of "Krystof." Two years later, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and he served at Prague's Cathedral of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. In 1988, Metropolitan Dorotheus presided at his consecratioin to the episcopacy and election as Bishop of Olomouc and Brno. After the repose of Metropolitan Dorotheus in 2000, he was named Archbishop of Prague and the Czech Lands, and he oversaw the work of the Church's Metropolitan Council. He then was elected by council delegates to become the fifth Primate of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, which was granted autocephaly by the Patriarch of Moscow in 1951.

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