Vladimir

Who was Vladimir?

Vladimir of Paris was an Eastern Orthodox archbishop and metropolitan of, successively, the Moscow Patriarchate, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He was head of the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe from 1946 to 1959.

Born in the village of Orlov in Viatka, Russia he was educated at the local diocesan seminary and at the Kazan Theological Academy, taking monastic vows there in 1897.

Vladimir was consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Grodno on June 3, 1907. He attended the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918 after which he returned to Grodno which had become part of the new Republic of Poland. In 1923, he was expelled by the Polish government. Traveling to Czechoslovakia, Bishop Vladimir joined the Western European exarchate of the Russian Church under Metropilitan Eulogius who installed him as rector of St. Nicholas Church in Nice, France in February 1925.

Vladimir remained with Eulogius as the exarchate accepted the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1931, before returning in 1945 as an exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate.