SYOSSET, NY [OCA] – April 20 marks the anniversary of the repose of His Eminence, Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky) in 1934. He was the only hierarch to be head of the North American Church for two separate periods: 1907-14 and 1922-34. He was also the first Primate to be granted the title “Metropolitan of All America and Canada” which is still used today. Between his two periods of service in North America, he became a leading hierarch in the Russian Church and during the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-18, he received significant numbers of votes during the several rounds of balloting to nominate candidates for Patriarch of Moscow.
A full biography of Metropolitan Platon has now been posted by the OCA Office of History and Archives on the OCA website.
In 1927, to honor the 25th anniversary of Metropolitan Platon’s consecration to the episcopacy and the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, two booklets titled “The Evangelistic Labors in America of Metropolitan Platon” were published in Russian containing speeches, sermons, letters, appeals and other documents. This was projected to be a series of six booklets, but only two were published. The title page and a brief introduction to the first volume (possibly written by Father Leonid Turkevich, who would later become Metropolitan Leonty) may be viewed here.
View a photo gallery of Metropolitan Platon
May the memory of Metropolitan Platon be eternal!
