Primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church Metropolitan Andrian Died

His Eminence Metropolitan Andrian, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church of Old Believers died suddenly of a heart attack on 10 August 2005 in the Kirov region. He fell ill during the procession with the cross from the town of Vyatka to the village of Velikoretskoe.

Metropolitan Andrian (secular name Alexander Gennadievich Chetvergov) was born on February 1951 in Kazan. He graduated from the Kazan Aircraft Industry Institute in 1974 and after that worked as constructing engineer. In 1986 he left his place of work for the Kazan Old Believers church, where he mastered several trades, including church art and handicraft. Later he was elected chairman of the church community and from 1995 worked as iconpainter in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.

He became a widower in 1998 and was ordained deacon in 1999 and priest in 2000. He took his monastic vows in 2001 and on 29 April that same year Metropolitan Alimpy of Moscow and All Russia consecrated him Bishop of Kazan and Vyatka in the Old Believers church of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God in Moscow. Andrian was elected Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia by the Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church on 9 February 2004 and installed in the Moscow Old Believers church of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God on 12 February 2004.

The deceased Primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church greatly contributed to the development of relations with the Moscow Patriarchate. On 11 May 2004 Metropolitan Andrian led a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church on a visit to the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate where they met with the DECR MP Chairman Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad. The meeting was held in the atmosphere of openness and trust and commenced a new stage in cooperation between representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church.

Discussed during the meetings were various needs of the Old Believers congregations, cooperation in the fields of culture, information and publications. During the time of his office Metropolitan Andrian undertook many trips to different regions and, as rule, met with the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. The growing mutual understanding was noted in the Decision of on the relations with the Old Believers Church and on the Old Believers parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church taken by the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on 6 October 2004.

Metropolitan Andrian, when addressing the Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church on 19 October 2004 noted the mentioned Decision in particular and the report of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on the relations with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and with the Old Believers Church. He emphasized that ‘there are people m the Russian Orthodox Church today who are prepared to listen to the Old Believers’ opinion on the existing division. A unique situation never known before has turned out now.’

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia met with His Eminence Metropolitan Andrian during the 9th World Russian People’s Council on 9 March 2005. The participants in the meeting in the Church Councils Hall of Christ the Saviour Cathedral remember an interesting address of Metropolitan Andrian, in which he spoke of the victory in the Great Patriotic war.

Archbishop John of Yaroslavl and Kostroma was elected Locum Tenens of the Moscow Metropolitan See of the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church. Metropolitan Andrian was buried at the Rogozhskoe Old Believers cemetery in Moscow on August 14.