Metropolitan Hilarion, a senior bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), has been reassigned to serve in the Diocese of Argentina and South America, according to a decree recently issued by ROC head Patriarch Kirill.
“You are assigned as your place of service the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Santa Rosa, Brazil, as well as the Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in Campina das Missões, Brazil, where you are to reside,” the decree stated.
Until recently, Hilarion, also known by his secular name Grigory Alfeyev, served as the head of the Russian Orthodox congregation in Karlovy Vary, a spa town in the western part of the Czech Republic that is home to a large Russian diaspora.
On May 24, police in Karlovy Vary stopped Hilarion’s car after an anonymous tip and found in the trunk four small containers holding a white substance. Hilarion and his videographer were detained and released two days later without charges. Hilarion said forensic tests confirmed the substance was a banned narcotic but maintained he had been framed.
Hilarion denied involvement in drug trafficking, called the arrest a politically motivated “setup,” and soon left for Russia, saying he feared being detained again. “The mere discovery of a prohibited substance does not answer the key question: how those items ended up in the vehicle in the first place,” he wrote on Telegram.
Late last week, Hilarion told the Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti that he planned to live in Moscow for the foreseeable future.
Until June 2022, Hilarion headed the Russian Orthodox Church’s foreign relations department — effectively serving as the church’s foreign minister — and was part of Patriarch Kirill’s inner circle. He was then removed for unclear reasons, excluded from the Holy Synod, and sent to serve in Hungary. While leading the church’s Budapest and Hungary Diocese, Hilarion was accused of sexual harassment by his cell attendant, Georgy Suzuki.
Suzuki later told The Insider that Hilarion regularly met with then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and lobbied for sanctions on Russia to be lifted. Hilarion denied the harassment allegations and later accused Suzuki’s mother of extortion.
Santa Rosa and Campina das Missões are small cities in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, far from the country’s main political and religious centers. For the Russian Orthodox community in South America, however, the locations have historical significance: The Church of John the Theologian in Campina das Missões was founded by emigrants from the Russian Empire and is considered the first Russian Orthodox church in Brazil. The Church of Peter and Paul in Santa Rosa appeared later, after part of the community moved to the larger neighboring city.
