BLOOM, ANTHONY

BLOOM, ANTHONY, Metropolitan of Sourozh (19 June 1914– ). Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to Andre B. Bloom, a diplomat in the Russian Imperial Service, and Xenia N. Scriabin, sister of the Russian composer, he was educated in Paris at the Lycee Condorcet and the Sorbonne. Stateless until 1937, he became a French citizen and received a Doctor of Medicine from the Sorbonne in 1943. He served in the French medical corps and the Resistance, 1939–1945, and was a general practitioner in France, 1945–1949. He took monastic vows in 1943 and became a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in 1948. Chaplain to the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius (q.v.), London, 1949–1950, he was the vicar attached to the parish of St. Philip, London (Russian Orthodox Church), in 1950. Made hegumen in 1953 and archimandrite in 1956, he became Suffragan Bishop of Sergievo, Moscow Exarchate of Western Europe, in 1957. Made Archbishop of Sourozh in 1960 and Acting Exarch from 1962 to 1965, he was appointed Metropolitan of Sourozh and Exarch of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in Western Europe in 1965. He is the author of Living Prayer (1965), School for Prayer (1970), God and Man (1971), and Courage to Pray (1973). His office also publishes the journal Sourozh, and he possibly enjoys the most highly regarded reputation of any living Russian cleric, both as “elder statesman” and spiritual guide.