On Sunday, June 17, shortly before the noon hour - with the completion in all the churches under his care of the Divine Liturgies during which prayers were chanted in his behalf - His Eminence, Archbishop KYRILL of Pittsburgh died in the Cranberry Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Cranberry Township. Burdened by severe illness for about a year, His Eminence was transferred from the hospital to the Cranberry Center only two days before his death.

       On Monday, June 18, his relics were vested under the supervision of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman and on Wednesday, June 20, requiem services were sung over them in Saint George Bulgarian Orthodox Cathedral church, Toledo, Ohio. The following day, the Funeral Service was served over His Eminence's relics in Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Allison Park, from which on Friday, June 22, after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, they were taken for burial to the cemetery of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Ellwood City.

       Archbishop KYRILL (Ilia Yonchev) was born in Panaguriste, Bulgaria on February 26, 1920, the son of Mancho Yonchev and Anna Perfanoff.  Completing his primary and secondary studies in his native town, he enrolled in the Saint John of Rila Seminary, Sofia, in 1934, graduating six years later with honor. He was tonsured a monk January 19, 1941 and the next day ordained to the Diaconate. His Eminence spent the following four years as a student at the Theological Faculty of the University of Saint Clement of Ohrid, in the Bulgarian capital. During this period, between the two World Wars, the Theology School of Sofia was at the apex of its academic productivity and glory, attracting students, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox, from throughout Europe. Among its professors were the internationally recognized N. Glubokovsky, a biblical scholar formerly lecturing at the Saint Peters­burg Theological Academy, and S. Zankoff, University rector and professor of canon law.                         

        Ordained to the Holy Priesthood on Bright  Friday in 1943, His Eminence graduated the next year from Saint Clement University and was assigned by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church, as Instructor of Church History and Homiletics, to the Plovdiv Seminary. At that time he was appointed Abbot of the Bachkovo Monastery.  While Abbot of the Bachkovo Monastery, he together, with other leading civil and religious leaders in Bulgaria. helped to protect the Jewish population of Bulgaria from extermination at the hands of Nazi occupiers.

  Two years later, in 1946, he was sent to the University of Bern, Switzerland to pursue graduate studies in philosophy and theology, which he completed in 1950. During this time he also attended the Ecumenical Institute of the University of Geneva at Bossey. 

  Called to the United States in 1950 by the late Metropolitan Andrey (Velchky), His Eminence assumed the post of secretary to the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church of America.  In 1951 he was transferred to the church in Toledo where he directed the eventual construction of the parish complex and where he remained rector until 1963. It was during his Toledo pastorate, in 1959, that His Eminence was elevated by Metropolitan Andrey to the rank of Archimandrite.

  In 1963, because of administrative disagreements with the Patriarchate of Sofia, a group of Bulgarian parishes in the United States and Canada reorganized themselves as an independent Diocese under the protection of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and elected His Eminence to the office of Diocesan Bishop. Confirming these actions, the Church's Holy Synod ordained him to the episcopacy on August 9, 1964.

           Twelve years later, fulfilling the decision of the Toledo Diocesan Congress of 1976, His     Eminence oversaw the petition - on behalf of the Diocesan hierarchy, clergy and laity - addressed to His Beatitude, Metropolitan Ireney, then Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, for admission into the Church, with full participation in her spiritual and canonical life.  On December 20, 1976 in the Chapel of the Metropolitan's  Residence in Syosset, New York, the document of union between the Bulgarian Diocese and the Orthodox Church in America was officially approved and signed.

The following year, after the election to the Primatial Throne of the Orthodox Church in America of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, His Eminence was appointed Locum Tenens of Pittsburgh. On July 8, 1978, convened in Belle Vernon, an Extraordinary (Electoral) Assembly unanimously petitioned the Holy Synod to transfer His Eminence to Pittsburgh where, three months later, on October 15, he was installed in Saint Alexander Nevsky church. His Eminence served as our Diocesan Bishop for 29 years.  In 1992, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.  He was the senior hierarch and a member of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America.  He was also a member of the Lessor Synod of Bishops, and served on numerous Church committees and was a member of the executive council of the Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania.     

 

+Archbishop KYRILL

1920—2007

May God

Grant him

Eternal Memory!!!