Ioasaph (Skorodumov)

Archbishop Ioasaph (Skorodumov) was a bishop in Canada and later archbishop of Buenos Aires in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, called the Enlightener of Canada. He is venerated by the faithful without synodal canonization.

He was born on 14 January 1888, with the name Ivan Skorodumov, in the village of Rebovichi in the Tikhvin district, into a priest's family. He graduated from the church school at Tikhvin, the Novgorod seminary (1908) and the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy (1912). On 13 November 1912 he was tonsured a monk by Bishop Theophan, with the name Ioasaph, after Saint Joasaph of Belgorod. He taught in church schools, took part in the First World War and in the civil war served in the White army. In 1920, in Crimea, he was raised to archimandrite and was preacher on the staff of General Wrangel; he then went into exile, to Constantinople and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where he taught in the cadet corps.

In 1929 he came as parish priest to Montreal in Canada, and in 1930 he was consecrated bishop of Montreal, at Belgrade. He crossed Canada by train, by cart and sometimes on foot, built churches, baptized and preached. He moved to Calgary and then, in 1936, to Edmonton, as bishop of Western Canada; in 1938 he bought there the building of a former Protestant church and made of it the cathedral of Saint Vladimir. In 1945 he was raised to archbishop. After twenty years of service, Canada had nearly forty parishes, a men's monastery in northern Alberta and a skete at Bluffton. In 1951 he was appointed bishop of Buenos Aires and Argentina. He reposed at Buenos Aires on 26 November 1955.