Hilarion (Kapral)

The youngest child of Alexei and Euphrosynia Kapral, Igor Kapral was born on 6 January 1948 in Spirit River, Alberta, Canada. He spent a childhood he describes as "pleasant ... absolutely free of any harmful influences", walking two and a half miles to school each day.[1] (Later, Kapral transferred to a school in Blueberry Creek, but he returned to finish high school.)

Metropolitan Hilarion (left) meeting Patriarch Kirill in Moscow, September 30, 2010

From his youth, Kapral felt drawn to the Church and loved to read books and periodicals on religion and morals. From a young age, around 6 or 7, he knew that he wanted to become a priest. He attended Holy Trinity Church in Spirit River, a congregation of the ROCOR composed of ethnic Ukrainians. Services were held monthly or bi-monthly, and often Archbishop Panteleimon (Rudyk) would celebrate these services. Igor revered Archbishop Panteleimon, who told the boy, "someday you will be a priest".[1]

In 1966, Kapral found a spiritual guide: Right Reverend Sava (Saračević), Bishop of Edmonton, a Serb who greatly revered John of Shanghai and San Francisco. In 1967, Kapral entered Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York. While there, he learned the Russian language, sang on the kliros, and served in the altar, learning the order of divine services. From his second year at seminary, Kapral was tasked with typesetting "Orthodox Life" in English, under the editorship of archimandrite Constantine Zaitsev; Igor soon succeeded him as editor. After some time, hieromonk Ignatius (Trepatschko), who was in charge of printing the journal, asked Kapral to typeset it in Russian as well.

Upon graduation from the seminary in 1972, Kapral entered the Holy Trinity Monastery as a novice. On 2 December 1974, he was tonsured a rassophore monk with the name Hilarion, in honor of Venerable Schema-monk Hilarion of the Kiev Caves and subsequently was tonsured into the little schema. On 4 December 1975, Archbishop Averky Taushev, for whom Hilarion served as a cell-attendant, ordained him a hierodeacon and on Lazarus Saturday 1976 Bishop Laurus of Manhattan ordained him a hieromonk. Hilarion served as a hieromonk at the monastery, continuing his work at the printing press. He was often sent to parishes, replacing absent priests, often traveling to Cleveland and Pennsylvania.

Metropolitan Hilarion ordaining a presbyter by cheirotonia, 2010.

On 10 December 1984, Hilarion was consecrated a bishop by Metropolitan of New York Philaret and nine other bishops and appointed to the see of Manhattan, charged with overseeing parishes in Pennsylvania; in the Synod of Bishops, Hilarion served as deputy secretary. In 1995, Bishop Hilarion was transferred to the See of Washington while retaining his residence in New York City. On 20 June 1996, he was transferred to the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand (which was experiencing problems at that stage) and raised to the rank of archbishop.[2]

In December 2003, Kapral was awarded the honour of wearing a diamond cross on his klobuk.[3] Upon Metropolitan Laurus's death Archbishop Hilarion was appointed as the temporary head of the ROCOR Synod.

On 12 May 2008, Archbishop Hilarion was elected and elevated as the new First-hierarch of the ROCOR, having received 9 votes out of 11.[4] On 14 May of that year, he was approved by the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate to the post of the primate[5] and elevated to the rank of metropolitan. On 18 May, he was enthroned in New York City.[6][7] On 10 December 2008, he was appointed a member of the Preparatory Commission for the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.[8]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he issued a statement where he did not acknowledge the war but inviting the faithful to “refrain from excess watching of television, following newspapers or the internet” and “close their hearts to the passions ignited by the mass media." In the statement, he used the term the Ukrainian land instead of Ukraine, a move seen as a deliberate denial of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty.[9] Hilarion has close ties to the Kremlin and to Vladimir Putin, from whom he was awarded the Order of Honour and the Order of Alexander Nevsky.[10][11]