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His Grace [[Bishop]] '''Mercurius (Ivanov) of Zaraisk''' is an [[auxiliary bishop|auxiliary]] of the [[Moscow Patriarchate]]. Although previously representative of the [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]] to the [[Orthodox Church in America]] and administrator of the [[Russian Orthodox Church in the USA]], Bishop Mercurius currently serves as head of the Synodal Department of Religious Education and Catechesis in Moscow, Russia.

Bishop Mercurius was born Igor Vladimirovich Ivanov on [[January 21 January ]], 1964 in Porkhov, Pskov Oblast. After finishing high school he worked for a year as a nurse before continuing his studies in St. Petersburg, where he graduated with a pediatrician degree in 1989. In 1988, meanwhile, the future bishop was [[tonsure|tonsured]] a [[monk ]] with the name Mercurius and in January 1989 was [[ordination|ordained ]] a [[deacon]]. In August 1989 , Hierodeacon Mercurius was ordained to the priesthood and appointed a full-time [[priest ]] at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg), Russia.

Hieromonk Mercurius served in Kaliningrad for several years, being elevated to the rank of [[igumen ]] (abbot) in 1992 and eventually being appointed rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under construction in the city. In January 2000 , Igumen Mercurius was elevated to the rank of [[archimandrite]] and in February he was [[consecration of a bishop|consecrated ]] to the episcopacy as Bishop of Zaraisk and auxiliary to the [[patriarch ]] responsible for the patriarchal Russian Orthodox parishes in the United States.

Bishop Mercurius remained administrator of the patriarchal parishes in the USA and representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church in America until 2009, when the [[Holy Synod ]] of the Russian Orthodox Church appointed him chairman of the Synodal Department of Religious Education and Catechesis and transferred him from New York to Moscow.