The Shepherd, October 2006
NEWS SECTION, 1
REPOSE OF METROPOLITAN VITALY
THE DEATH of the 96 year old Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), fourth First Hierarch of ROCA, at Magog, Quebec, was announced on 25th September, the day he died.
Born Rostislav Petrovich Ustinov in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1910, he was the son of an officer of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1920, during the Civil War, Rostislav was sent to the military school founded in Feodosia by General Wrangel. When he joined the White Army and evacuated, the young Rostislav found himself in Constantinople, and from there he went to Yugoslavia, where he studied in the Cadet Corps of the White Army.
In 1923, his mother sponsored her son to come to Constantinople and from there, she moved with him to Paris, where he was enrolled in St Louis College in Le Mans. Upon graduating, he joined his mother in Cannes.
In 1934, he was called upon to fulfil his military obligations, which he did by joining the 9th Cavalry Regiment, but the young Ustinov had no wish to remain in the world - his only desire was to withdraw to a monastery. In 1938, he entered the Monastery of St Job in the Carpathians. In 1939, he was tonsured rassophore with the name Vitaly, and a year later, he was tonsured to the little schema.
In 1941, in the city of Bratislava, Fr Vitaly was ordained by Metropolitan Seraphim of Berlin and Germany to the rank of hieromonk and assigned to minister in two towns on the Polish border. World War II forced the monastic brotherhood to flee from the approaching Red Army. Fr Vitaly found himself in Berlin, where, together with Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Nathaniel, he developed a broad mission among the Russian refugees and prisoners of war. The second onslaught of the Reds forced the two young clergymen to move to Hamburg, where another field of activity opened up for them: to save thousands of refugees from forced repatriation to the USSR. A good knowledge of various languages, especially of English, along with tireless energy, allowed Fr Vitaly and Fr Nathaniel to save the lives of many Russians.
Settling in Hamburg, Hegoumen Vitaly began to establish church life at the Displaced Persons camp, Fischbeck. A barracks church was immediately set up there with a daily round of services, psalm-reading courses and even a year-long theological course for 12 youths. At the same time, Hegoumen Vitaly gathered together a small monastic group, which began to publish church service books and even a newsletter, Pochaevskije listki .
From 1947 to 1951, Archimandrite Vitaly was the rector of the London parish. While in England he used his prodigious energies in caring for the DPs scattered throughout the country, at a time when there was little charitable or state support for refugees, and he was instrumental in establishing and caring for many of the Russian parishes in the Midlands and the North, where many of the DPs had settled to find employment. In 1951, on the feast day of Sts Peter and Paul, the patron saints of London, he was consecrated bishop in London and sent to Brazil. Soon the young bishop opened his own print shop and established a small orphanage for boys, where they were taught the daily cycle of services.
In 1955, Vladyka Vitaly and his brethren moved to Canada. As Bishop of Montreal and Canada, Vladyka established a skete in Mansonville. In Montreal, Vladyka acquired and refurbished the large St Nicholas Cathedral.
It can be stated with confidence that there is no place where Vladyka Vitaly settled where he did not organise a small monastic brotherhood and active publishing concerns.
Archbishop Vitaly was also instrumental in the establishment of our community at Brookwood. Within the Russian community here, there had been some opposition to our receiving the sacred relics of St Edward and the founding of the community. Vladyka Vitaly was sent by the Synod of Bishops to look into the matter and, after visiting us and talking with us, in the days when we still lived in the caravan, he overruled the objections and supported our cause.
The Council of Bishops in 1986 chose Vladyka Vitaly as the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In 2001, the Russian Church Abroad celebrated the 50th anniversary of His Eminence’s service as bishop. That year, Vladyka Vitaly announced his retirement.
Sadly, his last days were clouded with troubles, because after his retirement, the ageing and infirm hierarch was used in the establishment of a schismatic synod, which itself seems now to have disintegrated into a number of warring factions. Regarding this last, sad chapter of his life, Metropolitan Lavr, his successor as First Hierarch, in a tribute to him has said: “Vladyka Metropolitan Vitaly, living in retirement, to our great sorrow - and one cannot say of his own will but of the will of those around him - separated himself from us. Despite that, we commemorated him in our churches as one who was ailing. And now, when his soul is in need of our prayers, we call upon our pastors and flock to pray for the peace of his soul.”
May the newly-reposed Vladyka Vitaly be granted the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Memory!
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