Jeronim (Chernov) of Detroit

His Eminence, the Most Reverend Jeronim (Chernov) was an archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the ruling bishop of the Diocese of Detroit (now part of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America) from 1946 to 1957. 
==Life==
Ioann (John) Chernov was born in 1878 in the Vladimir district of Russia, into a family of clergy. After attending the local church schools, Ioann attended the seminary in Vladimir from 1895 to 1899. After graduating from the seminary, he taught religion in his home district from 1899 to 1902. 
In 1902, Ioann was ordained a priest. After serving in a number of different parishes, Fr. Iaonn entered the Moscow Theological Academy where he studied from 1909 to 1913. In 1914, after graduating from the academy, Fr. Ioann, having taken monastic vows and the name Jeronim, entered the Kursk Monastery of the Sign and joined the Kursk Seminary where he taught Sacred History. In 1915, he was appointed inspector at the seminary, a position he held until the Kursk Seminary was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1919.
He was also appointed abbot of the monastery in which was kept the Holy Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God (Kursk-Korennaya Icon). Archim. Jeronim was also secretary to Bishop Theophan (Gavrilov) of Kursk.
In 1919, the Bolsheviks were actively attacking the Orthodox clergy and destroying church facilities as they came to dominate the country. As the White Army retreated from Kursk, Bp. Theophan, with Archim. Jeronim, took the Holy Kursk Root Icon for safekeeping and left Kursk in September 1919. They traveled through southern Russia, Constantinople, and Thessalonkia to Yugoslavia, arriving there in March 1920. In Yugoslavia, Archim. Jeronim served a number of communities and directed the monastic school at Rakovche.
In 1923, Archim. Jeronim moved to Palestine to administer the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem until 1924, but remained in Palestine until 1933. In 1935, Archim. Jeronim was consecrated to the episcopate. In 1936, during a period of co-operation between the Russian Diocese of North America and Canada and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Bp. Jeronim was named Bishop of Eastern Canada a position he held until 1937. He returned to ROCOR after the two groups separated following the Seventh All-American Sobor of 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio.
After the sober, Bp. Jeronim was elevated to archbishop and appointed, by the ROCOR Synod of Bishops, the ruling hierarch of the Diocese of Detroit and Flint. Abp. Jeronim reposed on May 14, 1957 in Detroit, Michigan, after which his diocese of four parishes was merged with the Diocese of Chicago and Cleveland.
 
==Sources==
* Life of Archbishop Ieronim (Chernov) of Detroit
* List of Canadian Bishops
Category: Bishops