Archbishop John (

secular name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of Civil registry, registration of the birth ...

Jānis Garklāvs in Latvian or Ivan Yakovlevich Garklav, in Russian; August 25, 1898 – April 11, 1982) was a bishop of the

Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In ...

. He served as Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest from 1957 until his retirement in 1978. He is remembered for safeguarding the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of Our God after World War II.

Life

He was born in Umurga Parish, in the

Kreis Wolmar Valmiera county (, , ) was a historic county of Latvia. Its capital was Valmiera (''Wolmar''). History The county of Valmiera was created during the administrative territorial reform of the Governorate of Riga in 1783 by merging of parishes fr ...

of the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

(today in Latvia), on August 25, 1898. His father died when he was two years old, leaving his widowed mother to care for him and his two younger brothers. His mother, who was a gifted singer, did not remarry. Abp. John grew up in the small provincial town

Limbaži Limbaži (, , , ) is a town in the Vidzeme region of northern Latvia, with a population of 6,888. Limbaži is located 90 km northeast of the capital Riga. During the Middle Ages, as part of Livonia, Limbaži was a fortified town with stone wa ...

, located about 80 miles from

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. He attended school in the village and took active part in the

Latvian Orthodox Church The Latvian Orthodox Church () is an Eastern Orthodox church in Latvia, part of the wider Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy community. The Primate (bishop), primate of the church carries the title of ''Metropolitan of Riga and all Latvia ...

as an

altar boy An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up ...

and then as a '. He attended the Riga Theological Seminary, from which he graduated with honors. On September 20, 1936 metropolitan Augustine (Pētersons) of Riga ordained him a deacon. On September 27 of the same year, Bishop James (Karps) of Jelgava ordained him a priest. After Bishop Alexander (Vītols), formerly of Madona, died in Riga in 1942, Fr. John was elected Bishop of Riga. He was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

in 1943 after spending a period of time in preparation at the Holy Spirit Monastery in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. The new

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

found himself caught in the turmoil of World War II attempting to care for the many people displaced by the war. As the Soviet forces came into Latvia in 1944, Bp. John, together with his mother and an adopted son, Sergei, was forced to leave Latvia with a small group of Latvian priests. The group took refuge in southern

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and eventually arrived in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

with the help of American soldiers. In West Germany, Bp. John encouraged the Orthodox Christians to organize

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es in "

Displaced Persons Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displaceme ...

" camps. Bp. John arrived in the United States on

July 22 Events Pre-1600 * 838 – Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids. *1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of ...

, 1949, after having petitioned metropolitan Theophilus (Pashkovsky) to accept him into the Metropolia. In October 1949, he was appointed Bishop of Detroit and Cleveland, and in 1955, he was appointed administrator of the Chicago-Minneapolis diocese. In 1957, he was confirmed as the ruling bishop of the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

and raised to the rank of

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 ...

. Concurrently, the parishes previously under the Bishop of Detroit and Cleveland were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Chicago and Minneapolis. During his tenure as Archbishop of Chicago, Archbishop John served as senior bishop in the

Holy Synod In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox ...

and as chairman of the Department of Music of the Metropolia, which became Orthodox Church in America in 1970. He remained Bishop of Chicago until his retirement in September 1978. Archbishop Garklavs was a resident of

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

, a Chicago suburb. He reposed on

April 11 Events Pre-1600 * 491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. * 1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. *1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferra ...

, 1982 in Chicago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garklavs, John 1898 births 1982 deaths People from Limbaži Municipality People from Valmiera county Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America Clergy from Chicago People from Summit, Illinois 20th-century American clergy Latvian Riflemen Russian military personnel of World War I Latvian World War II refugees Latvian emigrants to the United States