Nikodim (Rotov)

Metropolitan Nikodim (secular name Boris Georgiyevich Rotov, Russian: Борис Георгиевич Ротов, 15 October 1929 – 5 September 1978), was the Russian Orthodox metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod from 1963 until his death.

He was born in Frolovo in southwest Russia.

According to the Mitrokhin Archive, which claimed deep Communist penetration of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nikodim was a KGB agent, working under the codename "Adamant", whose ecumenical activity with the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC) served to further Soviet goals. Ordained in 1960 at the age of 31, the youngest bishop in the Christian world at the time, he would go on to become one of the WCC's six presidents.

Metropolitan Nikodim is said to have participated in negotiating a secret 1960s agreement between Soviet and Vatican officials that authorized Eastern Orthodox participation in the Second Vatican Council in exchange for non-condemnation of atheistic communism during the conciliar assemblies.

He collapsed and died in 1978 while in Rome for the installation of Pope John Paul I. The new pope, who would himself die a few weeks later, prayed over him in his final moments.