Mitrophan Znosko-Borovsky was born into the family of a parish priest on August 17 (August 4 O.S.), 1909, in the city of Brest-Litovsk (at that time a part of the Russian Empire). He studied at the Theological Faculty of Warsaw University, then transferred to the Theological Faculty of Belgrade University as a recipient of a scholarship from the Serbian Patriarch Varnava. Mitrophan was ordained to priesthood on June 12, 1936, a short while earlier he married his matushka, Alexandra Semenovna Tsibrouk. Throughout the years, Fr. Mitrophan served in the following parishes: