June 19, 2013
"The Restorer of Canonical Order in North America:" On the 80th Anniversary of the Repose of Archbishop Apollinary (Koshevoy)

Wednesday, June 19 marks the 80th anniversary of the repose of Archbishop Apollinary (Koshevoy), at one time ROCOR’s Archbishop of North America & Canada, and one of the most significant and heroic figures in the history of the Church Abroad in the United States.

Archbishop Apollinary was born in Poltava in the Russian Empire. He was well educated, having graduated from the Poltava Seminary and the Kazan and Kiev Theological Academies. In 1917, he was consecrated Bishop of Rylsk, vicar of the Diocese of Kursk, and in 1919 was appointed ruling bishop of the newly established Diocese of Belgorod. He was forced to flee the Bolsheviks, and in 1924, after having spent two years in Jerusalem, was appointed Bishop of Winnipeg, vicar of the Diocese of North America. He was witness to (though not a participant of) the Detroit Sobor which, under the ambitious direction of Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky) of North America & Canada, declared the autonomy of the Russian parishes from the ROCOR Synod of Bishops (est. 1922) in Serbia.

On June 27, 1926, the ROCOR Sobor requested that Metropolitan Platon renounce claims of American autonomy and separation from the Patriarchal Locum Tenens and the Russian Church Abroad. Metropolitan Platon refused, and on September 10, replied on behalf of the bishops in America: "The authors of this Message recognize neither ‘Synod’ nor ‘Sobor.’… There are ‘Russian bishops in Karlovci,’ refugees, who abandoned their flocks and, in so doing, rent themselves from the body of the Church. Of their own volition, they then united into the so-called Synod and Sobor, which carry no canonical significance whatsoever." Metropolitan Platon wrote this, despite having recognized ROCOR’s canonical authority thitherto, and come before the Sobor in Serbia to justify his actions.

Then-Bishop Apollinary, recognizing the canonical disorder and impropriety at work, and honoring the resolution of the ROCOR Synod, refused to recognize the self-proclaimed "autonomy" of the Russian Church in America any longer. Showing great faith and fortitude, he was the only hierarch to stand against the powerful Metropolitan Platon and, as a result, he was "deposed" by the American Church, banned from serving, and run out of his hierarchal residence with the clothes on his back. As he wrote later, "I was driven away from the dinner table, which was already prepared and the foods set out… with the words: ‘We cannot share with you even a piece of bread!’"

In response, the Synod, which annulled his "deposition" and appointed him ruling bishop in America in 1927, assigned him the daunting task of restoring canonical order and bringing the lost Russian parishes back into the fold. At the time, he did not possess a single church: his first services were held in a private home. In 1929, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. His work and many tribulations exhausted him, and he fell asleep in the Lord only six years into his final ministry, on June 19, 1933. Despite persistent legal and moral opposition from the Metropolia, by the time of his repose he had returned 62 parishes to the bosom of the Orthodox Church.

Archbishop Apollinary has had another long lasting legacy in ROCOR, as well. As His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop George of Mayfield, noted:

"In Jordanville, Archbishop Apollinary is considered one of the founding fathers of Holy Trinity Monastery. It was he who gave Fr. Panteleimon and (later) Archimandrite Joseph the blessing to buy the land and start the monastery. If you go to the monastic cemetery behind the church, you will see that he is buried directly behind the altar, with Frs. Panteleimon and Joseph on his right and left. He stood up for canonical order and the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church here in America, and was persecuted for it. We honor him as our father and a confessor of the Faith."

On this day, please pray for the repose of the servant of God Archbishop Apollinary. May his memory be eternal!

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese