Archbishop Miron (

Secular name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of Civil registry, registration of the birth ...

: Mirosław Chodakowski) (b. 21 October 1957 – d. 10 April 2010) was an Archbishop in the

Polish Orthodox Church The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (), commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, or Orthodox Church of Poland, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches in full communion. The church was established in 1924, to accommodate O ...

and the Orthodox Ordinary of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

Life

Childhood

Chodakowski was born in Bialystok. The future hierarch's grandparents were deeply religious and he even learned

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...

from his grandmother. When Chodakowski was seven years old, his father was killed in an accident. During his childhood and early youth, he was an

altar boy An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up ...

at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Białystok. There he met the Archbishop Nikanor of Bialystok and Gdansk, who directed him to be educated at the seminary.

Theological studies

In 1972, he entered the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Warsaw, from which he graduated with a high school diploma in 1976. As a student at the seminary, he sang in the choir of the St. Mary Magdalene Cathedral in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and was a subdeacon of

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

Basil Basil (, ; , ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' (, )), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a hardiness (plants), tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" r ...

(Doroszkiewicz) of Warsaw and All Poland. He continued his studies at the Higher Orthodox Theological Seminary at St. Onufry's Monastery in Jableczna, from which he graduated in 1978.

Monastic life and priestly ministry

On 17 December 1978 he was tonsured a ryassophore. On 25 December 1978 he was ordained to the holy deaconate on, and to the holy priesthood on 15 February 1979. In November 1979 he was also tonsured a

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

. From 1979 to 1984 he was the superior of the Monastery of St. Onufry in

Jabłeczna Jabłeczna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sławatycze, within Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It lies approximately north-east of Sławatycze, south-east of ...

. At the same time, he worked in the upper classes of the Orthodox seminary located in the monastery as a lecturer in systematic theology. On 15 June 1984 he was sent to work in the newly established parish of the Annunciation of the Mother of God and St John the Theologian in

Supraśl Supraśl (; ; ) is a town and former episcopal see in Białystok County, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the Gmina Supraśl. It is situated on the Supraśl (river), Supraśl River, about northeast of Białyst ...

, but on November 25 of the same year he was raised to the dignity of

hegumen Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen (, trans. ), is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, or an archpriest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of ...

, and appointed as the superior of the Monastery of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God. In the monastery he carried out thorough renovation works, significantly contributing to its reconstruction after the destruction of the WWII and to the full reactivation of the

monastic community in its original form. On 7 April 1990 he was raised to the dignity of

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

Episcopacy

He was consecrated a bishop on 10 May 1998, becoming a

Vicar Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the Diocese of Warsaw-Bielsk with the title

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Hajnówka Hajnówka (; ; Podlachian microlanguage, Podlachian: ''Hájnuvka''; ) is a town and a powiat seat in eastern Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) with 21,442 inhabitants (2014). It is the capital of Hajnówka County. The town is also notable for its pr ...

. He received the gold Order of Merit for the Defence of the Country on 5 February 1999. He was conferred the rank of General Brigadier of the Polish Army by president

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served the maximum two terms as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economi ...

Death

He died in the

2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing List of casualties of the Smolensk air disaster, all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president ...

on 10 April 2010, with the Polish President and other Polish dignitaries. They were travelling to take part in the commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

. Chodakowski was posthumously appointed a Commander of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

. He was also posthumously promoted to the rank of Major General by

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...

Exhumation

In 2017, it was revealed that when the Polish state reopened the investigation into the crash and exhumed victim's bodies, testing revealed that Chodakowski's coffin contained his body from the waist up and the body of general Tadeusz Ploski from the waist down.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chodakowski, Miron 1957 births 2010 deaths People from Białystok Bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church Polish military chaplains Victims of the Smolensk air disaster Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Eastern Orthodox Christians from Poland 21st-century Eastern Orthodox bishops