Ierofey (Lobachevsky)

Hierarch Hierotheus (Ierofey) Lobachevsky (in the world Yakov Feodorovich, 1783-1871) was bishop of Ostrog, vicar of the Volhynia diocese, and abbot of Derman Monastery. He was glorified locally in the Rivne diocese by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 17 August 2021, and the service of glorification was held on 11 September 2022 at the Holy Trinity Convent in Derman; he is commemorated on 17 April (30 April by the new calendar).

He was born on 24 March (4 April) 1783 at Kovel, in the family of a Uniate priest; by other accounts in 1789. After the second partition of Poland, Volhynia returned to Russia, and in 1794 his family entered Orthodoxy. His father, Feodor, had been a Uniate priest at the Holy Cross church in Kovel; his mother, Anna, was the sister of the priest Anthony Rafalsky of Nuyno, whose son became Metropolitan Anthony, a first cousin of Yakov. In 1799 he entered the Volhynia seminary, from 1807 he studied at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and in September 1811 he was appointed teacher at the Volhynia seminary. He took monastic vows on 2 August 1814, on 6 August was ordained hierodeacon and on 9 August hieromonk; on 20 September he was named steward of the Zahaitsi monastery while remaining a teacher. From 1815 he was inspector and professor of philosophy at the seminary.

In 1819 he was raised to archimandrite, but in the same year was removed from school service, for allegedly expelling two pupils unsuitably, on the strength of a verbal order of the bishop. At Zahaitsi he occupied himself much with the natural sciences and learned foreign languages; on 12 August 1824 he was appointed dean of the monasteries. In 1829 the Holy Synod appointed him abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery of Ostrog, which after the fire of 1821 was housed in the buildings of the former Uniate monastery of Derman, chosen for his skill in building. There he wrote "On the Antiquity and Significance of Derman Monastery" and "On the Epiphany Church of Ostrog." In 1839 he took an active part in the reunion of the Uniates with Orthodoxy at Ratno.

On 25 March 1845 he was consecrated bishop of Ostrog, vicar of the Volhynia diocese, while remaining abbot of Derman. The Volhynia diocese had been united with that of Warsaw, and the bishops lived mostly in Warsaw, so the vicar in fact bore the care of the diocese. In 1860 the dioceses were separated and he settled permanently at Derman. He was also vice-⁠president of the Volhynia committee for the care of prisons, and twice received the emperor's thanks. In twenty-⁠seven years of archpastoral service he showed Christian love toward the clergy and the whole flock. He fell asleep at Derman on 17 April (29 April) 1871.

On 11 September 2022, on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Metropolitan Onuphry served the Liturgy with the rite of glorification in the convent at Derman, where the hierarch's relics lie for veneration.