Archbishop Anthony (Sinkevich) of Los Angeles & Southern California – Biographical Note
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Born in 1903 he was the son of Priest Feodor Nikolaevich Sinkevich (+1946 and buried in the St. Mary Magdalene Convent, Jerusalem).
Archbishop was born in Kiev and brought up in Serbia. After a primary and secondary school in Kiev, in 1920 he emigrated to Yugoslavia. He continued his studies at the Russian Cadet Corps in 1926-30. He completed Russian Cadet Corps training and studied medicine at the University of Belgrade, soon switching to theology. He underwent theological studies at Belgrade Theological Faculty, 1931-33 he was the catechist at the Russian high school in Belgrade and the pedagogical academy. In 1930, he entered Milkovo Monastery and was tonsured monk, ordained to the diaconate and priesthood. In 1933, he was elevated to hegumen in Belgrade and appointed head of the Jerusalem Mission, which he presided over until 1951, from 1936 in the rank of archimandrite. During his direction of the Mission, the Bethany Convent with its boarding school and day school was founded. In 1949, through his influence at the Jordanian court, he succeeded in keeping the Church Abroad’s property in the Jordanian part of Palestine legally intact.
The archbishop served in Jerusalem, Beirut, and San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles in 1963 as head of what became the Diocese of Los Angeles and Southern California.
An expert in liturgical music, the prelate directed choirs and arranged and composed music. During his tenure, he supervised fund-raising for a new cathedral in Los Angeles that is now being built. For his services, he was appointed Bishop of Los Angeles in 1951, first as a vicar bishop of Western America, from 1961 as archbishop and from 1962 as Archbishop of Los Angeles & Texas, from 1971 of Los Angeles & Southern California.
He retired and reposed in 1996. He was buried on the 21 June/3 August 1996 at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville. One of his great contributions to Church life was his effort in collecting material on the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
S: Tserk. Zhizn’ (1933) 2, p. 29; (1951) 3, pp. 6-17.
