Early years The youngest child of Alexei and Euphrosynia Kapral, Ukrainian immigrants, Igor Kapral was born on 6 January 1948 in
Spirit River, Alberta,
Canada. He spoke Ukrainian at home and English at school. He spent a childhood he described as having been "pleasant ... absolutely free of any harmful influences", walking two and a half miles to school each day. (Later, Kapral transferred to a school in
Blueberry Creek, but he returned to finish high school.) in Moscow, 30 September 2010 From his youth, Kapral felt drawn to the Church and loved to read books and periodicals on religion and morals. From a young age, around 6 or 7, he knew that he wanted to become a priest. He attended Holy Trinity Church in Spirit River, a congregation of the ROCOR composed of ethnic
Ukrainians. Services were held monthly or bi-monthly, and often Archbishop
Panteleimon (Rudyk) would celebrate these services. Igor revered Archbishop Panteleimon, who told the boy, "someday you will be a priest". In December 2003, the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR awarded him the honour of wearing a diamond cross on his
klobuk. In May 2006, the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR appointed him Chief Deputy of the President of the Synod of Bishops with residence in New York.
First-Hierarch of the ROCOR On 12 May 2008, Archbishop Hilarion was elected and elevated as the new First-hierarch of the ROCOR, having received 9 votes out of 11. On 14 May of that year, he was approved by the
Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate to the post of the primate and elevated to the rank of
metropolitan. On 18 May, he was enthroned in New York City. On 10 December 2008, he was appointed a member of the Preparatory Commission for the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was the first Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York born in North America. On the first day of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hilarion, an ethnic Ukrainian who spoke Ukrainian at home as a child, ==Death==