THE LATE
BISHOP STEPHAN OF PATARA

ASSISTANT BISHOP OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PARISHES IN WESTERN EUROPE

BIOGRAPHY :

The late Bishop Stephan of Patara (in the world Stefan Petrovich Timtchenko) was born on December 22, 1898, in the village of Murafa, Kharkov Province, Russia. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the army. After having emigrated, he first worked in the mines in Bulgaria, but from 1922, he studied in the Faculty of Law at the Karlsuniversity in Prague. Five years later, he completed his studies, and in the same year, 1927, he began his studies at the St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris.
In 1931, he was ordained deacon (celibate) in the Trinity Church at Chalette-Montargis by Metropolitan Evlogii, and a week later in the Church of St. Sergius in Paris, he was ordained a priest by His Eminence Metropolitan Evlogii. He was first rector in Belfort, but after a couple years, he was sent to Antwerp to found the Orthodox Parish.
After the death of Archpriest Peter Rumjantzeff, he was sent to Stockholm in February 1936 to become rector of the Transfiguration Church. In 1967, he organized the 350th anniversary celebration of the Stockholm parish. On May 5, 1972, Archbishop Georges (Tarassoff) of Syracuse ordained the mitre-bearing Protopresbyter Stephan Timtchenko as Archimandrite. On June 30, 1971 he was elected assistant bishop of Archbishop Georges of Syracuse, head of the Archdiocese of the Russian orthodox parishes in Western Europe, receiving the title of Bishop of Patara. He was consecrated to the episcopacy in Paris on May 7, 1972 he was consecrated Bishop of Patara. Bishop Stephan of Patara died in his quarters in Stockholm on January 29, 1979, and is buried in the Orthodox Cemetery of Stockholm.