Bishop John-Nectarius was the First Hierarch of the Orthodox Church of France (ECOF) from 1966 until his death in 1970.
Background
Bishop John-Nectarius (secular name Evgraf Evgrafovich Kovalevsky) was born on April 8, 1905 Saint Petersburg City, Russian Federation. He was the son of Yevgraf Petrovich Kovalevsky. He was the brother of the deacon and musicologist Maxime Kovalevsky (1903-1988) and the historian Pierre Kovalevsky (1901-1979). In childhood, he lived in the parent estate "Yutanovka", Biryuchsky county, Voronezh province (now Voronezh Oblast, Russian Federation).
Career
Evgraf Evgrafovich was co-founder with Vladimir Lossky of the Brotherhood of St. Photius (1925) and the St Denys Institute (1944). He was ordained a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate by Metropolitan Eleutherius (Bogoyavlenky) in 1937. Upon the death of Archimandrite Irénée (Louis-Charles) Winnaert, he was placed in charge of the newly formed Western Orthodox Church established by Metropolitan Sergius, the Patriarchal locum tenens of Moscow. The Holy Synod of the Church of Russia conferred upon him the title Doctor of Divinity in 1952.
In 1966, he was tonsured by Saint John Maximovitch, given the monastic name of Jean-Nectaire, consecrated bishop (with the assistance Theophilus (Ionescu) of Sèvres), and installed as the first Bishop of Saint-Denis in the modern era, making him the bishop of the Western Rite diocese now known as the Orthodox Church of France.
Author of theological works, articles in French and German magazines.