Wikipedia
The Most Reverend Kyrill (secular name Ilia Manchov Yonchev, ; February 26,1920, Panagyurishte, Bulgaria – June 17, 2007, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was the archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of Western Pennsylvania and Bulgarian Diocese.
In 1940 he graduated from the Saint John of Rila Theological Seminary in Sofia.
On January 19, 1941, he was tonsured to monastic orders and given the name Kyrill. The following day, he was ordained to the diaconate. In April 1943, he was ordained to the holy priesthood.
In 1944 Father Kyrill graduated from the Saint Clement of Ochrid School of Theology and was appointed instructor of theology in the seminary in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In the same year, he was named abbot of the Bachkovo Monastery.
In 1946, Father Kyrill was sent to Bern, Switzerland, for advanced studies in theology and philosophy. In 1950, following the communist takeover of Bulgaria, he emigrated to the United States. A short time later, he was assigned pastor of Saint George Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Toledo, OH.
In the late 1950s, Metropolitan Andrei (Petkov), leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia's Bulgarian Diocese of North and South America and Australia, petitioned to be accepted into the Russian Metropolia but had been rebuffed by them for unclear reasons, so in 1964 he petitioned and was approved by the Holy Synod of the Church of Bulgaria to be readmitted to the Bulgarian episcopacy. One of his clergy, Archimandrite Kyrill (Yonchev), disagreed with his decision and was consecrated by the bishops of the ROCOR to serve as head of the Bulgarian Diocese in Exile. Due partly to Metr. Andrei's advanced age, Bp. Kyrill persuaded many Bulgarian parishes to accept his authority.
In 1976, Bp. Kyrill and his diocese broke from the ROCOR and joined the Orthodox Church in America, thus creating its Bulgarian Diocese.
Archbishop Kyrill died on June 17, 2007, after suffering from ill health for the previous year.
Kyrill was the name given to a low pressure area that evolved into an unusually violent European windstorm, forming an extratropical cyclone with hurricane-strength winds. It formed over Newfoundland on 15 January 2007 and moved across the Atlantic Ocean reaching Ireland and Great Britain by the evening of 17 January. The storm then crossed the North Sea on 17 and 18 January, making landfall on the German and Dutch coasts on the afternoon of 18 January, before moving eastwards toward Poland and the Baltic Sea on the night from 18 to 19 January and further on to northern Russia.
Kyrill caused widespread damage across Western Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Germany. 47 fatalities were reported, as well as extensive disruptions of public transport, power outages to over one hundred thousand homes, severe damage to public and private buildings and major forest damage through windthrow.
The storm was named "Kyrill" on 17 January 2007 by the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute. The storm was named after a Bulgarian man living near Berlin, whose family donated to the university's "Adopt-A-Vortex" programme.
Kyrill may refer to:
- Kyrill (storm), a European windstorm in January 2007
- The Most Reverend Kyrill (Yonchev) (1945–2007), archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America
Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, is the ruling bishop of the Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Abp. Kyrill was born Boris Mikhailovich Dmitriev on November 24, 1954 in San Francisco, California. At the age of 18, he was tonsured reader by Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev). In 1976 he graduated from University with a degree in theology. He then attended Saint Vladimir's Seminary, where he received his master's degree.
In 1981 he was tonsured a monk and ordained a hierodeacon and then a hieromonk by Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky). The same year he was appointed to the Russian Ecclesiastic Mission in Jerusalem as a teacher of Russian and English at the Bethany School. In 1982 he was transferred to the Western American diocese.
In 1987, he was appointed rector of the Ss Cyrill and Methodius Russian Church school at the Joy of all Who Sorrow Cathedral in San Francisco and was elevated to the rank of hegumen.
June 7, 1992 he was consecrated bishop of Seattle, Vicar of the Western American Diocese.
After the repose of Archbishop Anthony in 2000, he was appointed ruling hierarch of the Western American Diocese.
In 2003 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. The same year he participated in the first official delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia to Russia, which opened the process of reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchate.