Early life

Ilya Ganaba was born on August 1, 1962, in Leningrad, RSFSR, Soviet Union (modern day Saint Petersburg, Russia). His father, Vladimir Ganaba (b. 1934), was an archdeacon at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Podolsk in the Moscow Oblast. Later, his older brother, Alexander Ganaba (b. 1957), became an archpriest and dean at the same cathedral.^[1]

In 1971, Ilya Ganaba moved with his parents to Penza. There, he attended school, graduating from high school in 1979. He also served as an episcopal subdeacon at the altar and sang in the choir of the Dormition Cathedral in Penza.^[1]

Seminary and ordination

In 1980, Ilya Ganaba entered the Leningrad Theological Seminary, now the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. In 1982, he was accepted into the Leningrad Theological Academy, where on 17 November 1985, he took monastic vows and was given the name of Elisey in honor of St. Elisha. On November 22, 1985, he was ordained hierodeacon and on January 18, 1986, he was ordained hieromonk. On June 20, 1987, he joined the brotherhood of St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow. In 1988 he completed his postgraduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy.^[1]

From December 27, 1988, to October 5, 1992, he served as Deputy Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.^{[citation needed]}

On January 20, 1994, he was appointed head of the Foreign Institutions Sector of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the Easter holiday of 1997, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad raised Elisey to the rank of archimandrite.^[1]

On October 7, 2000, he was appointed Representative of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East in Damascus, Syria.^[2]

On March 12, 2002, he was appointed Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, leaving his post of representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East in Damascus.^[3][4]

On August 28, 2006, he greeted the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, metropolitan Laurus, at the Moscow Patriarchate's Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and gave him a tour of the Cathedral's holy items. Archimandrite Elisey called the visit to Holy Trinity Cathedral a symbol of the inner unity of the children of both parts of the Russian Orthodox Church and expressed joy that the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia had prayed at the holy places of the Cathedral.^[5]

On October 6, 2006, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Elisey was appointed vicar of the Diocese of Chersonesus with the title of "Bishop of Bogorodsk", and entrusted with the task of administering the Diocese of Sourozh and relieving the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.^[6]

Ordination as bishop and primate of the Diocese of Sourozh

On November 26, 2006, he was ordained Bishop.^[7]

December 27, 2007, he was appointed primate of the Diocese of Sourozh, which covers the United Kingdom and Ireland.^[8]

On February 1, 2010, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia elevated him to the rank of archbishop for "the diligent service of the Church of God".^[9]

Sourozhsphere.net wrote: "During the years of service of Vladyka Elisey, the diocese became a strong family and not some isolated national church, but a real international symbol of Russian Orthodoxy in Western Europe. Thanks to the wisdom and competent management, the diocese made friends from other Christian denominations and created strong ties with the Royal family of Great Britain."^[10]

Primate of the Diocese of The Hague

On 28 December 2017, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed its gratitude to Archbishop Elisey for his labours in building up church life in the Diocese of Sourozh and gave him a new position of service as primate of the Diocese of The Hague and the Netherlands of the Russian Orthodox Church.^[11] On 31 December 2017, Archbishop Elisey celebrated the Divine Liturgy with Bishop Matthew of Sourozh [ru] in the Dormition Cathedral, London. Archbishop Elisey then bade farewell to the parishioners of the Dormition Cathedral.^[12]