Childhood Chodakowski was born in
Bialystok. The future hierarch's grandparents were deeply religious and he even learned
Church Slavonic 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 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 and was a subdeacon of
Metropolitan Basil (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. From 1979 to 1984 he was the superior of the Monastery of St. Onufry in
Jabłeczna. At the same time, he worked in the upper classes of the
Orthodox seminary located in the monastery as a lecturer in systematic theology.
Episcopacy He was consecrated a bishop on 10 May 1998, becoming a
Vicar Bishop of the Diocese of Warsaw-Bielsk with the title
Bishop of
Hajnówka. 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.
Death He died in the
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash 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. Chodakowski was posthumously appointed a Commander of the
Order of Polonia Restituta. He was also posthumously promoted to the rank of
Major General by
Bronisław Komorowski. ==References==