The Chancellery of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, is deeply saddened to announce that on November 1/14, 2023, the feast day of the Holy Martyrs and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, Archimandrite Trifon (Plotnikov) reposed in the Lord. Archimandrite Trifon was the first abbot of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery after its reopening, the director of the curatorial services and instructor at the Ekaterinodar Theological Seminary, and rector of the Church of All Saints in Ekaterinodar (“Krasnodar”). He was 69 years old.

The future Archimandrite Trifon (Viktor Leonidovich Plotnikov) was born on October 25/November 7, 1954, in the city of Kirovsk, in the Murmansk region, into a working-class family. He was baptized as an infant. In 1972 he entered the Leningrad Forestry Academy in the Chemical Engineering Department. From 1973 to 1976, he served in active duty in the Soviet Northern Fleet on nuclear ballistic missile submarines.

In 1981, Bishop Isidore of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory tonsured him a reader. In 1982, he entered as a second-year student at the Moscow Theological Seminary. He graduated from the Seminary as a correspondence student in 1993. In 1983, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Isidore and assigned to the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in the village of Yb (Vylgortsky district of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). On October 7, 1984, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Isidore and appointed rector of the church. On April 9, 1986, in the St. Elias Cathedral in Arkhangelsk, Bishop Isidore tonsured him into the Lesser Schema with the monastic name Trifon, in honor of the Venerable St. Trifon of Pechenga, the Enlightener of Lapland.

On June 15, 1992, by a resolution of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hieromonk Trifon was appointed prior of the newly reopened Holy-Trinity Antonievo-Siysky Monastery (in the Kholmogory district of the Arkhangelsk region), to which the future Patriarch Filaret (Feodor Nikitich Romanoff), the father of the first Tsar of the House of Romanoff, Mikhail Feodorovich, had been exiled by Tsar Boris Godunov. In July 1992, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Rus elevated Father Trifon to the rank of Igumen (Abbot).

From the end of 1994 to 2010, Fr. Trifon served as the head of the diocesan Department of Religious Education and Catechesis. From September 1995 to 2008, he headed the Arkhangelsk campus (the Distance Learning Center) of the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Institute, which had been founded with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II. From 1999 on, Abbot Trifon served as the Chairman of the Diocesan Archaeological Commission. On Pascha in 2000, by Patriarchal decree, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.

In 2007, Archimandrite Trifon graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy. Beginning in March 2000, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Spiritual Sower [Dukhovnyi seiatel’] and its supplement “Pedagogical Seminar” [“Pedagogicheskii seminar”]; and from November 2001, he served as the Editor of the historical and Church almanac Siysky Chronograph [Siiskii khronograf]. From October 26, 2009, to June 16, 2011, he took advanced coursework at the All-Church Graduate and Doctoral School.

He participated as a delegate at the Local Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of January 27-28, 2009.

In 2010, he was transferred to the Dioceses of Ekaterinodar and the Kuban.

On September 1, 2013, His Eminence Metropolitan Isidore of Ekaterinodar and the Kuban appointed Archimandrite Trifon rector of the Church of All Saints in Ekaterinodar. In 2015, he was made responsible for the monasteries of the Dioceses of Ekaterinodar and the Kuban. In 2017, he was appointed head of the office for organizing assistance to those in dire need, within the diocesan Department of Social Services and Charity of the Ekaterinodar and the Kuban. He taught several courses at the Ekaterinodar Theological Seminary, including “The Legal Foundations of Parish Life,” “Pastoral Theology,” and “Practical Guide for Pastors.”

On December 23, 2022, his birthday, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, awarded Archimandrite Trifon the Imperial Order of St. Anna, Third Class, “in recognition of his services to the Nation and to the Russian Orthodox Church, and noting especially his efforts to revive the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery, and as a sign of Our singular favor.” Fr. Trifon was also a recipient of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Third Class.

Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, Grand Duke George of Russia, and his spouse, Princess Victoria Romanovna, extend their most sincere and heartfelt condolences to Fr. Trifon’s fellow clergy and spiritual children.

May the Lord grant eternal rest to His newly-reposed servant, Archimandrite Trifon, in His Kingdom.