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| - Theodore Nicholaevich Pashkovsky was born in the province of Kiev on February 6, 1874. He was born into a priestly family. He attended the Kiev Theological Seminary Preparatory School where he was noted as a disciplined and hard working student. The curing of a bone infection he developed while still a young student was to guide him in his future career. After doctors believed that the infection was not curable, prayers for Theodore by the already famous John of Kronstadt, when he visited the school, resulted in a complete healing. In gratitude, Theodore vowed to become a novice at the Kiev Lavra. This he fulfilled in 1894. But, events would change this choice.
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| abstract
| - Theodore Nicholaevich Pashkovsky was born in the province of Kiev on February 6, 1874. He was born into a priestly family. He attended the Kiev Theological Seminary Preparatory School where he was noted as a disciplined and hard working student. The curing of a bone infection he developed while still a young student was to guide him in his future career. After doctors believed that the infection was not curable, prayers for Theodore by the already famous John of Kronstadt, when he visited the school, resulted in a complete healing. In gratitude, Theodore vowed to become a novice at the Kiev Lavra. This he fulfilled in 1894. But, events would change this choice. When Bishop Nicholas of the North American diocese visited the Lavra to recruit workers for his mission, Theodore was invited to America. He was assigned as the secretary of the mission administration after arriving in San Francisco in late 1894. Soon after he met and married Ella Dabovich from the Serbian community. She was the niece of Fr. Sebastian Dabovich. Then, on December 4, 1897, he was ordained a priest following his earlier ordination as deacon. On June 20, 1900, his wife delivered him a son, Boris, who would be remembered during World War II as Colonel Boris Pash, the leader of the Alsos Mission in Europe under the Manhattan Project and as the Foreign Liaison Officer under General Douglas MacArthur during negotiations on the future of the Japanese Orthodox Church in 1945-47. When then-Archbishop Tikhon returned to Russia in 1906, Fr. Theodore accompanied him with his family and worked in the administration of the Warsaw-Vilna Diocese. During World War I, Fr. Theodore worked in the Famine Relief Program of the Young Men's Christian Association on the Volga River. During these years in Russia his wife died [1917]. As the chaos of the Bolshevik regime settled over the Church, he met often with and was advised and instructed by Patriarch Tikhon on the future of the North American diocese. During these meetings Patr. Tikhon also expressed the desire that Fr. Theodore become a bishop. Fr. Theodore returned to the United States in 1922 and was soon tonsured a monk with the name of Theophilius. Then, under direction of the Holy Synod Hieromonk Theophilius was consecrated on December 3, 1922, as Bishop of Chicago. Bp. Theophilius remained in Chicago until he was transferred in 1931, to become Bishop of San Francisco. After Metr. Platon's death in 1934, Bp. Theophilius was elected jointly by the council of assembled bishops and the full Council as the new metropolitan by the Fifth All-American Sobor that convened in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 20, 1934. Under Metr. Theophilius American Church continued to journey into a state of stability. Episcopal relationships improved as the threat of the Living Church subsided, although new challenges arose. Attention was given to improving church education programs, including re-establishing a seminary. A metropolitan cathedral, the Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral, in New York City, was acquired. Yet, a residue of the chaos and episcopal problems of the 1920s were to remain through World War II and through to Metr. Theophilius' death on June 27, 1950.
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