New Old Believers’ Bishop of Kyiv and All Ukraine ordained in Moscow
Hieromonk Nicodemus (Kovalyov), rector of Holy Protection Church in Zhmerynka was consecratedas Bishop of Kyiv and All Ukraine of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church on December 11, at the Holy Protection Cathedral at Rohozhske cemetery in Moscow.
According toPortal-Credo.Ru,which cites the official website of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, the ordination was headed by Metropolitan Cornelius (Titov).
He was elected as Bishop of Kyiv and All Ukraine on October 18 in Moscow.
Bishop Nikodemus (Nicola Kovalyov) was born in 1968, he is an ethnic Russian. His parents and paternal grandparents came from Kursk region. During the persecution of the Old Believers in tsarist times, they were forced to move to Vinnitsa region, where along with other families of Old Believers they founded a Russian village. They built a church, where the Old Believers prayed over hundreds of years, until the beginning of Khrushchev persecution of religion, when the church was closed.
The maternal ancestors also came from the Kursk region. At the time of Nicholas’ persecution they moved to the village of Dobrianka in Chernihiv region, but at the beginning of the XX century they moved to Vinnytsia, where they lived near the temple. They are also buried in Vinnytsia. Fr NicolaKovalyov’s father, now deceased, made a labor carreer from a digger to the main controllerof the largest construction company in the Vinnytsia. His mother, Eugenia Kovalyova, was engaged in church needlework, sewing clergymen’s clothes, miters, archpriests hats, restored old church utensils.
In 1975, Nicola Kovalyov went to secondary school. The parents also sent him to enroll in the school of aesthetic education. Later he graduated from Vinnytsia College of Culture and Arts. Nikola started his professional career began as a teacher, he worked in the school of aesthetic education for more than 26 years, gave classes in musical art.
On May 31, 1992, he was tonsured as a reader by Bishop Ioann (Vitushkin), the then Bishop of Kyiv and All Ukraine. A renowned priest,Fr Sergei Maslov, was spiritual father of Nikola Kovalyov.
About eight years ago in Kyiv, Archbishop Savvatiy of Kyiv and All Ukraine appointed Kovalyov a deacon. Three years later, archbishop Savvatyordained deacon Nicola to priesthood,later he finally left the secular work and devoted himself completely to the church ministry. For half a year Fr. Nicola Kovalyov served as rector of the church in Zhukovka. Prior to ordination he was rector of the Old Believer church of the Holy Virgin in Zhmerinka.
After Archbishop Savvatiy’s death in summer 2016, the Holy Synod unanimously supported FrKovalyovas candidate to the office of Bishop of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Between the conciliar sessions Fr Nicola took monastic vows with the name of Nicodemus.
