Serbian Orthodox Church in Canada

Our Church’s History in Canada

The first Serbian Orthodox Church on Canadian soil was founded in 1912 in Regina, Saskatchewan by a community of immigrants who came largely from the Banat region of Serbia. That church still stands today, along with 32 other parishes and missionary parishes that comprise the Serbian Orthodox Church of Canada.

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada was founded by the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church on May 26, 1983. The Serbian Orthodox Church in Canada is canonically and hierarchically an integral part of the Serbian Orthodox Church (Patriarchate), with its See in Belgrade, Serbia. The Canadian Diocese has administrative autonomy in all matters which pertain to the administration of external church affairs in this country.

The Serbian Orthodox community in Canada continues to grow both through the influx of new members, who have embraced Orthodoxy from other faith communities, as well as new waves of Serbian immigrants from the former Yugoslavia.

In 1992, the Diocese marked a joyous and historic occasion. The cornerstone of the first Serbian Orthodox monastery in Canada was blessed by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle. The Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration is located in Campbellville, Ontario.

[Excerpt taken from:  https://www.istocnik.ca/en/Diocese]

His Eminence Metropolitan Dr. Mitrofan (Kodic)

His Eminence Dr. Mitrofan was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan on May 18, 2024, and has served as the head of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada since 2016.

His Eminence Dr. Mitrofan was born in 1951 in the village of Ljusa, Sipovo, in Bosnia.  He studied at the seminary in the Krka Monastery, receiving the monastic tonsure in 1970 on the eve of the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. On the following day, he was ordained as a Hierodeacon..

He went on to study at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, Romania. In 1977, he was assigned as supplent (trainee) of the Seminary of the Holy Three Hierarchs in the Krka Monastery. He passed his professorship exam in 1979. He then became assistant rector of the seminary at Krka Monastery, going on to assume the rectorship in 1987. That same year, he was elected by the Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church to become a bishop.

Afterward, having moved to the United States, Bishop Mitrofan was appointed as Administrator of the Diocese of Midwestern America in 1988, where he remained until he was appointed as Bishop of Eastern America in 1991. He would remain in this position until 2016 when, by the will of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit, he was chosen to be Bishop of Canada.

His Eminence Dr. Mitrofan has published many theological works. In 1997, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in Belgrade at the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

[Excerpt taken from https://istocnik.ca/episkop ]