Born to a Russian family in Riga, Latvia, Fr Vitaly Permiakov, Ph.D. relocated to the United States in 1999 after completing his undergraduate studies. He entered St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) in Yonkers, NY with the blessing of late Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas (OCA) (d. 2011). After finishing seminary, Fr Vitaly enrolled in a doctoral program in Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where in 2012 he defended his dissertation on the history and origins of the Byzantine rite for the consecration of churches. Fr Vitaly taught at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, NY) from 2011 to 2020, and joined the full-time faculty at St Vladimir's Seminary in August 2020.

Fr Vitaly was tonsured to the ecclesiastical rank of reader in the Orthodox Church in America at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St Vladimir’s Seminary, in 2002. In 2021, on the Feast of the Annunciation, he was ordained subdeacon, also at Three Hierarchs Chapel. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2021, again at the Seminary chapel, he was ordained to the holy diaconate through the hand of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon. Three years later, His Beatitude ordained Fr Vitaly to the priesthood on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2024, at Three Hierarchs Chapel.

 

Educational Background

• B.A., Russian Culture, Latvian Academy of Culture (Riga, Latvia), 1999
• M.A., Humanities, University of Texas at Dallas, 2001
• M.Div., St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2004
• Ph.D., Theology/Liturgical Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2012

Teaching Interests

• Byzantine Liturgy: History and Theology
• Liturgical Theology
• Liturgy of Jerusalem and Constantinople
• Sacramental Theology

Current Projects and Research Interests

Fr Permiakov’s research is mainly focused on the liturgical history of Jerusalem and Palestine in the Byzantine period. Currently, he is working on a translation and publication of an old Georgian baptismal service, which, as he believes, reflects the baptismal practice in Byzantine Jerusalem at the end of the first millenium A.D. Additionally, he has recently collaborated on a forthcoming article exploring the revival and reception of the Liturgy of St James in the Orthodox churches in the modern period. He is also in the process of revising and updating his Ph.D. dissertation to prepare it for publication.

Recent Courses Taught at SVOTS

LT 102 - Liturgy of Initiation

Selected Publications

• (editor, Introduction, English translation, revision of the Church Slavonic translation) The Divine Liturgies of St James the Brother of the Lord: Slavonic-English Parallel Text. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Publications, 2020.
• “Обновление Храма Воскресения Христова в Иерусалиме [Dedication of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem],” Православная Энциклопедия [Orthodox Encyclopedia]. Vol. 52. Moscow: Orthodox Encyclopedia Center, 2018. P. 252-257.
• (editor, with Herman Majkrzak), The Hieratikon, vol. 2: Liturgy Book for Priest and Deacon. South Canaan, PA: Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2017;
• The Hieratikon: Office Book for Priest and Deacon. South Canaan, PA: Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2014.
• “Чин освящения храма в восточных традициях” [“The Rite for the Consecration of a Church in Eastern Christian Traditions”]. In Michael Zheltov, ed., Православное учение о церковных таинствах: Материалы V Международной конференции Русской Православной Церкви. Vol. 3. Moscow: Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission, 2009. P. 346-367.
• (translator) Nicholas Afanasiev, The Church of the Holy Spirit. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
• “The Historical Origins of the Feast of Antipascha,” St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 47.2 (2003): 157-182.

Recent Conference Presentations and Activities

• “Temple, Cross, Jerusalem: an Old Georgian Homily on the Dedication of Holy Anastasis, Attributed to John of Damascus.” 18th International Patristics Conference, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK), 21 August 2019.
• “A ‘Presbyteral’ Rite for the Installation of an Altar in Two 12th century Byzantine Euchologia.” Problems in Early History of Liturgy seminar, Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy (Vancouver, BC, Canada), 5 January 2018.
• “The Prayer for the Blessing of Waters on Epiphany in the Georgian Hagiopolite Euchologia,” Problems in Early History of Liturgy seminar, Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy (Washington, DC), 6 January 2017.
• “The Rites of Baptism and Chrismation in the Georgian Euchologia of the Hagiopolite Tradition,” Problems in Early History of Liturgy seminar, Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy (Houston, TX), 5 January 2016.
• “Scriptural Themes in the Prayers of the Jerusalem Euchologion.” International Conference Liturgical Reception of the Bible: Dimensions and Perspectives for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Regensburg, 25 September 2015.

Recent Awards

• One-month Research Stipend, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, August 2013
• Heckman Stipend, Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Saint John’s University, May- June 2011
• Junior Fellowship in Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, September 2008- May 2009
• Professional Development Award, Institute of Scholarship in Liberal Arts, University of Notre Dame, 2007