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Ivan Kurochkin was born in [[March 6]], 1955 in Ishim, USSR. He [[baptism|baptized]] at St. Nicholas Church in Ishim.
After finishing school, he completed compulsory military service. In 1977, he was [[tonsuredtonsure]] d [[subdeacon]] by Bishop Maxim (Krokha) of the Moscow Patriarchate in Omsk. His spiritual fathers were Schemamonk Prochor, and Metropolitan Zinovi (Mazhuga) of Tsitsikar (Georgia). Between 1978 and 1982, he studied at the [[Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary|Moscow Theological Seminary]].
In 1982, he was tonsured to the [[Schemamonk|small schema]] and [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]] and [[priest]] by Bishop Maxim in Omsk. In 1983 he was elevated to [[Igumen]], and appointed the confessor of the Omsk-Tiumen Diocese and served in a newly opened [[parish]] in Shablinkin, near Ishim.