Metropolitan Ioann (secular name Vasyl Mykolayovych Bodnarchuk, , ; 12 April 1927 – 9 November 1994) was an Orthodox hierarch born in the Ternopil area of Western Ukraine, which at that time was a territory of Poland. Defrocked from the Russian Orthodox Church, metropolitan Ioann played a notable role in revival of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. During his life he served as a bishop successively in the Russian Orthodox Church (1977–1989), in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (1989–1992) and in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate (1992–1994). Biography Though he was born into a family of Ukrainian Catholics, he converted to Orthodoxy early in his childhood. His name at birth was Vasyl Bondarchuk (Wasyl Bodnarczuk). Arrest Following World War II since 1945, Vasyl Bondarchuk served as a cantor (dyak) leading a church choir in home village Ivane-Puste. In 1946, the Soviet authorities liquidated the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which was widespread in Western Ukraine, while many members of the church were persecuted in various ways. In 1949, Ioan (Bodnarchuk) was arrested for his relations with Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor spending time in Tyumen labor camp and later in the Kengir copper mines near Karaganda (Steplag). His family also was deported to Kazakhstan, where they lived until 1954 and in 1953 or in 1955 he was released on amnesty. Education In 1957, he was accepted into the Leningrad Theological Seminary and on 25 January 1958, he received holy orders to became a deacon. After graduating from the seminary, he was accepted into the Leningrad Theological Academy and on 21 May 1961, he received holy orders became a priest with the ceremony being led by Metropolitan of Leningrad and Ladoga Pimen. Note, both seminary and academy are located in one place, Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1964, he graduated the Academy with a PhD in Divinity and he was sent to the Lviv and Ternopil diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate. He served as a priest in the village of Striivka in Zbarazh Raion which is in the Ternopil Oblast and in 1968, he served as a priest in a parish in the Lviv Oblast (Truskavets). Clergy experience On 11 October 1977, he took his monastic vows in Pochaiv Lavra and on 14 October 1977 was awarded the title of Archimandrite. On 23 October 1977, he was consecrated as a bishop of Zhytomyr