Metropolitan Platon of Feodosia and Kerch reposes in the Lord
Metropolitan Platon passed away in the 86th year of his life; he had headed the Feodosia Eparchy since 2012.
On November 6, 2026, in the 86th year of his life, Metropolitan Platon of Feodosia and Kerch, one of the oldest hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reposed in the Lord, reports the UOC Information and Education Department.
The future archpastor was born on November 17, 1940, in the urban-type settlement of Uspenka in the Voroshilovhrad (now Luhansk) region. After finishing school in 1957, he entered the Odesa Dormition Monastery as a novice. From 1958 he studied at the Kyiv Theological Seminary, and after its closure in 1960, at the Odesa Seminary. In 1961–1964 he served in the army.
In 1965, he entered the Leningrad Theological Academy and graduated in 1969 with the degree of Candidate of Theology. In 1969–1972 he worked as a referent at the Department for External Church Relations, and in 1972 he completed postgraduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy. On April 14, 1971, he was tonsured a monk, then received the rank of hierodeacon, and on September 12, the rank of hieromonk.
On November 3, 1972, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and sent to serve in the Argentine Eparchy. On December 16, 1973, in the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow, he was ordained Bishop of Argentina and South America. In 1977, he became an archbishop and Patriarchal Exarch of Central and South America.
From 1980 he administered the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Eparchy, and from December 1984, the Yaroslavl and Rostov Eparchy. From November 1, 1993, he again headed the Argentine See. On February 29, 2004, he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan. In 2012, he was relieved of the administration of the Argentine-American Eparchy and received into the UOC.
By a decision of the Synod of the UOC of December 20, 2012, Metropolitan Platon became the ruling hierarch of the newly established Feodosia Eparchy with the title "of Feodosia and Kerch".
On June 7, 2022, the eparchy was placed under the jurisdiction of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. In July 2024, the Synod of the ROC relieved Platon of the administration of the eparchy and retired him. Metropolitan Platon received the great schema, the highest degree of monastic tonsure, on July 23, 2026, taking a name in honor of the Martyr Plato of Ancyra. The hierarch died after a long illness at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine in Moscow.
As the UOJ reported, Metropolitan Vissarion of Ovruch had earlier departed to the Lord.
