Chorbishop Anastasij

Chorbishop Anastasij, or alternatively Anastasij (Nikolin) Jakovskij, born Andronik is the 217th serving Bishop Assembler of the Senate of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Werschetz. He was born on 30th November 1953 in the town of Kamenolomsk as the first and oldest child in the family. He was raised in a household which followed Native Slavic religious and ritualistic practices. He himself was baptized at the age of 27. Having found a helping hand and a friend in the local town priest who led him to monasticism. At first he had many troubles becoming an Orthodox Christian, mostly caused by his family. After his tonsure in 1983, his family stopped giving him a hard time, and his father and sister got baptized, while his mother died before she had a chance to get baptized. His other brothers and sisters moved to Kadolha. As a newly tonsured monk, he started helping his local community with the blessing of his abbot father archimandrite Jovan and his bishop Ipolit. He was ordained as a hieromonk in 1985 and consecrated as a chorbishop to the then-Patriarch Makarije in 1999. In 1989, he started working with the then Archbishop of Velija Gradina Joakim (now the Patriarch) at managing and distributing the charity through the organisation „Blagotvoriteľji Veršca“ which was merged with the Kusian charity „ŚĹZS“ in 2001.