Stefan Rudyk

Stefan
Stefan
Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland
Church	Polish Orthodox Church
Diocese	Diocese of Warsaw–Bielsko
In office	1965–1969
Orders
Consecration	22 March 1953
Personal details
Born	Stepan Rudyk; December 27, 1891; Majdan Lipowiecki
Died	March 26, 1969 (aged 77); Warsaw
Buried	Orthodox Cemetery, Warsaw
Denomination	Eastern Orthodoxy

Stefan, secular name Stepan Rudyk (born 27 December 1891 in Majdan Lipowiecki, died 26 March 1969 in Warsaw) was the fourth Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland, the head of the Polish Orthodox Church from 1965 to 1969 of Ukrainian descent.

He was a graduate of the seminary in Oryol. From 1922 to 1939, he served as the pastor of various Orthodox parishes designated for Polish soldiers of this denomination. After the September Campaign, he withdrew with the Polish forces to Romania and was interned there. In 1941, he became a chaplain of the prisoner-of-war camp in Dorsten. Thanks to the intervention of the International Red Cross, he was allowed to live in Berlin, and after two years, he arrived in occupied Łódź. In this city, he served in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral for ten years. In 1953, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Wrocław and Szczecin, a position he held for eight years. Then, from 1961 to 1965, he was the Bishop of Białystok and Gdańsk, after which the council of bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church elected him as its head.

As the leader of the church, Metropolitan Stefan continued his efforts to convert the Greek Catholic population to Orthodoxy. He also re-established contacts with other autocephalous churches and served as the vice-chairman of the Polish Ecumenical Council.