Anthony Bloom

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, born Andrei Borisovich Bloom, was born in Lausanne in 1914 to a family of diplomats and military personnel. He spent part of his childhood in Persia and later (after the Russian Revolution of 1917) in France. He studied medicine, specialized in surgery, and completed a doctoral thesis in oncology. During World War II, he served in the French army and later contributed his services as a surgeon during the French Resistance. In 1943, he took monastic vows. In 1948, he relocated to London to join the Brotherhood of St. Sergius. In 1956, he was appointed priest of the Russian parish in London, and in 1957, he was ordained as a Bishop. Five years later, he was appointed by the Moscow Patriarchate as Archbishop and Exarch of Western Europe, and in 1966, his see was elevated to a Metropolitan status. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 89. His work, books, sermons, and the breadth of his personal influence have established him as one of the most significant figures of 20th-century Orthodoxy in Europe.