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Constantine of Irinoupolis

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Name
  
Constantine Irinoupolis


Education
  
Duquesne University

Died
  
May 21, 2012, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Metropolitan Constantine (secular name Theodore Stanislavovich Buggan; July 29, 1936 – May 21, 2012) was the Metropolitan of Irinoupolis, and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (UOC of USA), which is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States. The primatial cathedral is in Parma, Ohio (St. Vladimir Cathedral), and the Church's head offices and Consistory are based in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.

Contents

Early life

Metropolitan Constantine was born in Pittsburgh on July 19, 1936 to Stanley (Stanislav) and Catherine Buggan, a Ukrainian family. Upon completion of his secondary education he entered the College of St. Andrew, in Winnipeg (an affiliate college with the University of Manitoba), Canada, from which he graduated in 1959. He also studied at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York and Duquesne University, receiving a doctorate in philosophy from the latter.

Priesthood and episcopacy

On April 23, 1967 he was ordained deacon in South Bound Brook, New Jersey by Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) (future first patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyivan Patriarchate), and a priest on July 23 by Metropolitan John (Theodorovich), in Pittsburgh. His pastoral work comprised St. Vladimir Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois and at St Nicholas Church in Troy, New York.

Father Theodore was tonsured a monk on December 18, 1971, receiving the name Constantine, and on May 7, 1972, he was consecrated by Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) to the Chicago cathedra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America (UOC in America). In 1977 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and to metropolitan in 1992. After the death of Patriarch Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) in 1993 he became the Primate of the UOC in America, and in 1994, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Diaspora.

From 1995–96, the UOC in America and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Diaspora entered in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Metropolitan Constantine received the titular diocese of Irinoupolis.

Death

Constantine of Irinoupolis died from congestive heart failure on May 21, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the age of 75.

References

Constantine of Irinoupolis Wikipedia