ended death_date consecration birth_date church death_place dead image name ordination caption enthroned consecrated_by predecessor birth_place successor article_title birth_name archbishop_of
5 september 1978 5 september 1978 10 july 1960 15 october 1929 russian orthodox church rome dead nikodim -lrb- rotov -rrb- 1963b.jpg nikodim -lrb- rotov -rrb- 19 august 1947 nikodim in 1963 9 october 1963 pimen i of moscow pimen -lrb- izvekov -rrb- frolovo , russia anthony -lrb- mielnikow -rrb- nikodim -lrb- rotov -rrb-
 boris georgievich rotov metropolitan of leningrad
nikodim -lrb- rotov -rrb-

metropolitan nikodim -lrb- secular name boris georgiyevich rotov , , 15 october 1929 -- 5 september 1978 -rrb- , was the russian orthodox metropolitan of leningrad and novgorod from 1963 until his death .
he was born in frolovo in southwest russia .
according to the mitrokhin archive , which claimed deep communist penetration of the russian orthodox church , metropolitan nikodim was a kgb agent , working under the codename `` adamant '' , whose ecumenical activity with the roman catholic church and the world council of churches -lrb- wcc -rrb- served to further soviet goals .
ordained in 1960 at the age of 31 , the youngest bishop in the christian world at the time , he would go on to become one of the wcc 's six presidents .
metropolitan nikodim is said to have participated in negotiating a secret 1960s agreement between soviet and vatican officials that authorized eastern orthodox participation in the second vatican council in exchange for non-condemnation of atheistic communism during the conciliar assemblies .
he collapsed and died in 1978 while in rome for the installation of pope john paul i .
the new pope , who would himself die a few weeks later , prayed over him in his final moments .
