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== Biography ==

Matthew Craig Steenberg was born in 1978 on American Naval Base in Okinawa, Japan. Growing up, he lived in many places both in the United States and abroad, including the city of Moscow, Idaho in the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. At university, he majored in Classics and Religion, graduating with BA degrees in both. Afterwards, on a Marshall Scholarship, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he obtained a Masters Degree and then Doctorate in Patristic Studies and Church History from the University of Oxford. Upon completion of these degrees, he became a teaching Fellow of Religion at Oxford, a post he held until 2007, when he became Chair and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds Trinity University, a post which he held until 2010.

While in Oxford, Fr. Irenei was tonsured a [[reader]] as well as served in the capacity of choir director. In 2006, he helped found the parish of [[St. Nicholas Church (Oxford, England)|St. Nicholas Church, Oxford]] after the already-established Orthodox parish in Oxford switched jurisdiction.

He was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]] in London on [[August 28]], 2007, by [[Bishop]] [[Elisey (Ganaba) of Sourozh|Elisey of Bogorodsk]], serving in the [[Diocese of Sourozh]].

In January 2010, Archbishop [[Kyrill (Dmitrieff) of San Francisco|Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America]] received Deacon Matthew Steenberg into the ranks of clergy of the Western American Diocese from the Diocese of Sourozh and assigned him to the St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Church in San Francisco and as the new principal of St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy in San Francisco<ref>[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ShuMKn4LJA0J:frsergei.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/what-is-your-name-brother/+Steenberg+monk+March+8+2010&cd=8&hl=ru&ct=clnk&gl=ru Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov