He was born on June 19, 1924, in Tallinn into the family of a Russian army colonel. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family had emigrated to Estonia. In 1943, he finished school and served as a psalm reader in the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Tallinn. On August 19, 1945, he was ordained a deacon by Paul (Dmitrovsky), Archbishop of Tallinn and all Estonia, and later, on February 8, 1948, he was ordained a priest by Isidore, Bishop of Tallinn and all Estonia. He was appointed rector of St Mary Magdalene Church in Haapsalu. In 1951 he graduated from the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Seminary (by correspondence).