His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir (Kotlyarov), the ruling hierarch of the St. Petersburg Diocese from 1995 to 2014, then rector emeritus of the Cathedral of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in St. Petersburg, reposed in the Lord yesterday on the feast of Theophany.
He departed to the Lord at the age of 92 following a long illness, reports the Russian Orthodox Church.
In his condolences, Patriarch Kirill emphasized that Met. Vladimir, “lived a life full of many cares and labors, which he carried out to establish the enduring spiritual and moral values of the Gospel in the consciousness of his flock.”
His Eminence served the Church as an ordained cleric for 69 years, including 60 years as a hierarch.
May his memory be eternal!
***
Met. Vladimir was born on May 27, 1929, in Kazakhstan in the family of a deacon.
He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1952. He was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood the next May. He graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy in 1958, after which he taught Liturgics and Scripture at the Academy and Seminary for several years.
In February 1962, he as tonsured a monk and appointed deputy head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite later that year.
On December 30 of that year, he was consecrated Bishop of Zvenigorod, vicar of the Moscow Diocese, and appointed the Russian Church’s representative to the World Council of Churches.
In February 1965, he was appointed representative to the Patriarch of Antioch in Damascus. In October 1967, he was appointed Bishop of Berlin and Central Europe and elevated to the rank of archbishop.
He then served in several dioceses within Russia. In February 1992, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan. On December 27, 1995, he was sent to the Diocese of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. He was appointed head of the St. Petersburg Metropolia in March 2013.
Met. Vladimir retired on March 19, 2014, and was granted the position of rector emeritus of the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in St. Petersburg.