User:Phillipm0703/Bazyli (Doroszkiewicz)

Metropolitan Bazyli, (secular birth name Włodzimierz Doroszkiewicz; born 15 March 1914 in Cisy, died 11 February 1998 in Warsaw) was the Archbishop of Warsaw and Metropolitan of All Poland.

Life
He was born on 15 March 1914 in the village of Cisy to a peasant family of Aleksy and Maria Doroszkiewicz as one of six children.

In the years 1927–1936 he studied at the theological seminary in Vilnius, where he also obtained his high school diploma. After graduating from the seminar, he applied for admission to studies at the College of Orthodox Theology at the University of Warsaw. His candidacy was rejected because he declared Belarusian nationality in the survey. Then he went to Grodno, where Bishop Antoni (Marcenko) sent him to work in the Orthodox parish in Svislach as a psalmist. On September 6, 1937, as a married man , he was ordained deacon by Bishop Sawa (Sowietow). The same clergyman recommended him to study at the College of Orthodox Theology in Warsaw, thanks to which Włodzimierz Doroszkiewicz was accepted this time.

On April 17, 1938, he was ordained a priest. He carried out his pastoral ministry in Łysków, Gronostajewice, Svislach, Michałowo (in 1940–1943 as a vicar and until 1946 as a parish priest) and in Gródek (Białystok region).

During World War II, he was repressed by both the Soviet and German authorities. After the end of hostilities, he was positive about the socialist system introduced in Poland.

He worked in the latter town from 1946 to 1960, managing the construction of a parish church. Between 1957 and 1960, he combined his pastoral ministry with the work of a lecturer at the Orthodox seminary in Warsaw.

With his wife Margaryta, he had two daughters Irada and Mirosława, and a son, Jerzy. In 1959, however, he decided to part with his wife and take monastic vows. According to his own memoirs, the motive for this decision, apart from the appointment of a monk, was the difficult financial situation of the family.

As bishop
On December 30, 1959, Fr. Włodzimierz Doroszkiewicz laid in the monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jabłeczna, he made his perpetual monastic vows and took the name of Bazyli. On January 11, 1960, he was awarded the title of archimandrite. On March 25, 1960 in the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene in Warsaw, he accepted episcopal chirotonia and was appointed vicar of the Warsaw-Bielsko diocese with the title of bishop of Bielsko.