Evlogia Kyriou. Gospod' blagoslovit. May God bless you. I am sorry to inform our clergy, faithful, and friends that I learned this morning of the repose, last evening, of YAKOV POPOV, one of the original founders of our Exarchate's Holy Trinity parish in Oxnard, California.

        YAKOV, 102 years of age, was a refugee from the Bolshevik Revolution and a dedicated Orthodox Christian. He was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1908. He received his university degree in agronomy and did pioneering research in what was then the new science of developing natural rubber.

        Forced to do labor in Germany during World War II, he and his wife, Olga, whom he married in 1935, were placed in a camp for displaced persons in Germany, as were millions in the aftermath of the war. They were fortunate to emigrate to the U.S. in 1949, where they worked as citrus laborers until Yakov was finally employed in a professional capacity by the County of Ventura, California.

        In the difficulties of resettlement in the U.S., Yakov dedicated himself, along with other Russian refugees, to establishing an Orthodox Church in Oxnard, California. It is thus that he helped found the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, which he and others built at their own expense and with their own labors.

        Yakov was a remarkable example of a disappearing generation of people to whom we all owe an inestimable debt and whom we could not even hope to emulate. He leaves as his legacy a parish that was founded, as a plaque outside the Holy Trinity Church states, by Orthodox Christians who were "delivered...from oppression" and who with gratitude acknowledged that they were "blessed" by their "beloved new homeland, the United States of America."

        Yakov, whose wife reposed a year ago, is survived by two daughters, Victoria and Tania, a son Boris, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandson. He is also survived by all of us who love and find solace in the Holy Trinity parish, which is a haven for those of good spirit and good will.

        It is my hope and dream that what Yakov and his co-founders established will continue as a Church serving a pan-Orthodox community of believers who have been similarly blessed, as American-born Orthodox Christians, by this country and its freedom. I also hope that we will always call to mind how benefited we have been by these wonderful founders, who, emerging from the most horrible persecution in their former homeland, have left us a place to worship in freedom of conscience and free from foreign influence.

        Again, as I said, we owe men such as Yakov, a hero to our Faith, to his former homeland, and to this nation, a debt that can never be paid. May his reward be immense and inestimable in Life Eternal, as I know that it will be, and may we be made worthy to emulate, again, even in a small way, his great sacrifice and his indomitable spirit.

        I offer my condolences to Yakov and his family, asking that they remain always true and loyal to his example and to his spirit.

Byechnaya pamyat'. Aionia e mneme. Memory Eternal. How privileged we are to have known such men!

Least Among Monks,

+ Archbishop Chrysostomos