lit a candle 2h agoDeputy of Kalmykia's Supreme Council in 1993, then the state gave him the Order of Friendship in 2000. Church and politics rarely mix that cleanly.
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Archbishop Zosima (secular name Vladimir Mikhailovich Ostapenko) was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who rebuilt Orthodox life in Kalmykia, later led the Vladikavkaz see, and finished his active ministry as Archbishop of Solikamsk and Chusovoy. He was born on 12 July 1950 in the village of Novocherkasskoye in…
Archbishop Zosima (secular name Vladimir Mikhailovich Ostapenko) was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who rebuilt Orthodox life in Kalmykia, later led the Vladikavkaz see, and finished his active ministry as Archbishop of Solikamsk and Chusovoy. He was born on 12 July 1950 in the village of Novocherkasskoye in Tselinograd Region of the Kazakh SSR, was orphaned in 1964, and died in Moscow on 25 September 2026 at the age of 76 while living in retirement.
After boarding school and Soviet Army service in Bryansk from 1968 to 1970, he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary from 1970 to 1974. He served as a psalmist in Makhachkala, was ordained deacon and priest in December 1981 for the church of the Archangel Michael in Grozny, and in 1984 was sent to Kalmykia, where for a time he was the only Orthodox priest in the republic's only Orthodox church. As rector in Elista from 1985, he was tonsured a monk with the name Zosima in 1987, became dean of Orthodox parishes in Kalmykia, opened the diocese's first Sunday school in 1990, and began building Kazan Cathedral and other churches. In 1993 he sat as a deputy of the Supreme Council of Kalmykia.
On 24 December 1995 Patriarch Alexy II consecrated him Bishop of Elista and Kalmykia. Patriarch Alexy consecrated Kazan Cathedral as the diocesan cathedral during a 1997 visit. Zosima was raised to archbishop in February 2006 and met Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican in September 2007. In March 2011 the Holy Synod transferred him to Vladikavkaz (later titled Vladikavkaz and Alan), where he also served as sacred archimandrite of the Alan Dormition Monastery and spoke publicly about the deep roots of Orthodoxy among Ossetian peoples.
Ill health led to temporary management of that diocese in 2016. That October he was appointed to Solikamsk and Chusovoy, and in 2017 as sacred archimandrite of Holy Trinity Monastery in Solikamsk. The Synod retired him on 24 July 2025 with residence in Moscow after he reached age 75. He received Russia's Order of Friendship in 2000 and several church orders. Moscow Patriarchate and diocesan notices announced his death on the morning of 25 September 2026. Farewell services were arranged in Moscow and Elista. He is remembered for restoring Orthodoxy in Kalmykia after decades of scarcity and for pastoral work in the North Caucasus and the Perm Region.
Biography adapted from Russian Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Moscow city diocese / Patriarchia.ru notices via Pravoslavie.ru and moseparh.ru. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Archbishop Zosima of Solikamsk and Chusovoy at the Church of the Transfiguration, Solikamsk, on his birthday, 12 July 2018
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