Paul L'Huillier (December 3, 1926, Paris, France – November 19, 2007,

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, a ...

) was a prominent scholar and the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of New York and New Jersey.

Biography

Paul L'Huillier

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to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1945 while enrolled at St. Denys Institute in Paris. On August 30, 1954, he was tonsured as a monk and took the name of "Peter". On September 4 and 5, 1954, he was ordained hierodeacon and hieromonk by Archbishop Boris (Vik),

Exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and ea ...

of the Russian Patriarchate in Europe. In 1960, L'Huillier was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. On September 12, 1968, L'Huillier was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

Bishop of Chersonesus (Patriarchal Exarchate in Western Europe). In 1979 he was invited to serve in the Orthodox Church in America by Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor). L'Huillier accepted and was installed as Bishop of Brooklyn that year. Two years later, he succeeded Metropolitan Theodosius as Bishop of New York and New Jersey. In 1990 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. The author of several books, L'Huillier's final volume spurred some disagreements in Orthodox circles. Published by St. Vladimir's Press, it urged the Orthodox Churches to adopt the Western Christian calculation of Easter, aka '' Paschalion''. This has been a controversial topic for some time in Eastern Orthodox discourse. Some critics of the book emphasized that only the Eastern Paschalion holds to the Nicene Council's 4th century prohibition on celebrating the resurrection before the Jewish Passover. Some argued that abandonment of that stipulation could even imply a subtle subtext of antisemitism, since it would further decouple the connection between Christianity and Judaism. This criticism is made on both historical and contemporary grounds, the latter because Western Christianity annually ignores contemporary Jews' calculation of Passover. Subsequent to L'Huillier's retirement from the episcopate in 2005, the Diocese of New York and New Jersey was combined with the Diocese of Washington ( D.C.) to create the Diocese of Washington and New York. Both during his episcopate and subsequent to his retirement, L'Huillier taught canon law at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary. L'Huillier died in

on November 19, 2007. He was buried at St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.

Episcopal succession

References

1926 births 2007 deaths Clergy from Paris Eastern Orthodox Christians from France 20th-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops French emigrants to the United States Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America Bishops of New York Burials in Pennsylvania 21st-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops 20th-century American clergy 21st-century American clergy {{EasternOrthodoxy-bishop-stub