Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev

Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev and Galicia was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and then, after emigrating from Russia, the first First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Metropolitan Anthony was born Alexei Pavlovich Khrapovitsky on March 17, 1803, in Vatagino village of Kresteski district of Novgorod province, Russia. He reposed August 10, 1936, in Sremsky Karlovtsi, Serbia. His parents were members of the Russian nobility. He was educated at St Petersburg, Russia, where he finished the 5th Classical Gymnasia with a gold medal. He owes the beginnings of his religious education to his mother and the influence of Th. M. Dostoyevsky, the reading of Church Fathers and the Lives of Saints as well as interest in the ideas of the slavophile movement. In his young years, he was interested by the work of V. S. Solovyev, whom he later criticized for pro-Roman Catholic leanings. A final important influence was meeting St Nicholas, the enlightener of Japan.

In 1881, despite the opposition of his father, Alexei enrolled in the St Petersburg Theological Academy, where he became friends with M. M. Gribanovsky, the future Bishop of Tauria, who was first of academy students to become a monastic after a 20-year hiatus in tonturings. This friendship strengthened Alexei's desire to serve the Church as a learned monk. In his third year, he worked on his masters dissertation "Psychological data in favour of free will and moral responsibility" with the oversight of A. Ye. Svetilin.

Before graduating, Alexei was totured on 18 May, 1885, with the name of Anthony. That same year, he finished the Academy, and received his diploma. On June 12, he was ordained hierodeacon and on September 29 hieromonk. He then remained at the Academy as part of the teaching staff. In 1886-1887, he was appointed to teach homiletics, liturgics, and canon law at the Kholm Theological Seminary. In 1887-1889, hieromonk Anthony was an instructor at the Academy in the departement of Old Testament studies and, since 1889, served as the Academy's inspector. A result of this work was his 1890 book "An Exegisis of the Book of the Prophet Micah".

In 1888, as a result of reworking his dissertation, Hieromonk Anthony was awarded the degree of Master of Theology. In 1888 and 1889, he taught a course on introduction to theological sciences. At around the same time, he became friends with St John of Kronstadt. In 1890, he was appointed as rector of the St Petersburg Theological Academy and raised to the rank of archimandrite. In 1891, he was appointed rector of the Moscow Theological Academy.