SILVESTR OF BILOHOROD

The Vocation of Academic Monasticism. The Example of Kiev Theological Academy

Silvestr (Stojčev), Bishop of Bilohorod, Vicar of the Metropolitan of Kiev, Rector of the Theological Academy of Kiev. Born in 1980, Oleksandr Mikolajovič Stojčev, after studying theology at the Theological Academy of Moscow and psychology at the Orthodox University “John the Theologian”, was tonsured as a monk under the name of Silvestr by Archbishop Antonij of Boryspil'. In 2010 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the Philosophical-religious conception of M. M. Tareev. In 2017 he was ordained Bishop of Bilohorod and appointed Rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary.
He is a member of the Theological-canonical commission of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For his theological work, he was awarded the order of St. Nestor Annalist (2010) and the order of St. Peter Moghila (2015).

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In the 19th century Russian monasticism developed a tendency to scholarly research in theology and patristics, often referred to as a vocation to "learned monasticism". This phenomenon gave rise to great figures of theologians, patrologists, church historians. An important role in this process is that of the Theological Academies, and in particular the Theological Academy of Kiev, which still today carries out its ministry of theological education in close contact with the monastic environment of the Lavra of the Caves.