April 26, 2010
Erie, PA: His Grace, Bishop Daniel of Erie, reposed in the Lord
On Monday morning, April 26, in his 79th
year, His Grace, Bishop Daniel of Erie (born Dimitri Borisovich
Alexandrow), vicar bishop of the First Hierarch for the care of Old
Believers, reposed in the Lord. His Grace Jerome, Bishop of Manhattan,
released a statement in response to Bishop Daniel’s passing, which
read in part:
"I call upon all of the faithful of
our diocese to lift up their prayers for the repose of the soul of the
newly departed Bishop Daniel. I ask that all of the rectors
commemorate Vladyka during the Great Entrance on the Midfeast of
Pentecost. "
On Wednesday, April 28, on the Midfeast of Pentecost,
Bishop Jerome will celebrate the Old Rite Liturgy in the cathedral
Church of the Nativity of Christ in Erie, PA. After the Liturgy, Bishop Daniel’s funeral will
be held; Bishop George and Bishop Jerome
will
preside.
A Short Biography of Bishop Daniel:
Bishop Daniel of Erie was born
Dimitri Borisovich Alexandrow on September 15,1930 in Odessa into a
soldier’s family (his maternal grandfather was governor of Alaska
during the Russian Empire). In 1938, Dimitri Alexandrow’s father was
arrested by the Bolsheviks and shot.
In 1944, during the occupation of
Odessa by the Romanian army, he became a cantor in his church. That
same year he emigrated with his mother to Romania, later moving to
Austria.
After the war he lived in a camp for
Displaced Persons (DP) at Feldkirchen, later moving to Geneva,
Switzerland. In 1949 he moved to the United States.
In 1958 he graduated from Holy
Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, NY. He was ordained a
deacon on August 1, 1965, and was ordained a priest later the same
year.
In 1973-1974 he preached among the
Old Rite believers in Sydney, Australia.
In 1979 he was elevated to the rank
of archpriest. He founded an Old Rite-Old Believer community in
Pennsylvania (USA).
In 1988 he was tonsured a monk. On
August 14, 1988 he was consecrated Bishop of Erie, Vicar of the
Eastern American and New York Diocese of ROCOR. He was tasked with
caring for the Old Rite-Old Believer community in communion with the
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
He was an iconographer, one of the
more famous iconographers of the Russian Diaspora. He pained
iconostases, wrote icons and the iconography in many Orthodox churches
in America and Western Europe. He was a member of the Synodal
Architectural Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of
Russia. He was a member of the "Icon Society" in Paris, and
a church architect. He was an expert on the Church Typicon and the
rubrics of the divine services, as well as of early Russian Znamenny
chant. He was a translator, and is the author of several works of
literature.
See
also
Moscow:
Condolences of the Patriarch on the repose of Bishop Daniel of Erie
Erie, PA: The Funeral of His Grace, Bishop Daniel of Erie
Media Office of the Eastern
American Diocese
photos
www.rusianorthodoxchurch.ws
