Hilarion (Rudnyk)

Ilarion (Rudnyk) of Edmonton is the diocesan or ruling bishop of the Western Eparchy of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada.

Ilarion was born as Roman Rudnyk on February 14, 1972, in L'vov, Ukraine. He undertook his primary, secondary, and seminary studies in Soviet Ukraine, finishing his studies at the Kiev Theological Seminary a year after Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR. At the recommendation of Archbishop Vsevolod (Maidansky) of Scopelus, and with the blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Arhondonis) of Constantinople, Roman then moved to Greece to continue his theological studies at the theological faculty of the Aristotlean University in Thessalonica, from which he graduated in 1997.

On December 5, 1997, Roman was tonsured a monk with the name 'Ilarion' (Hilarion in English). The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Tyroloe and Serention consequently ordained Ilarion to the deaconate (on December 21) and, three years later, to the priesthood. Hieromonk Ilarion continued to pursue his theological studies, completing a masters in canon law. In late 2002 Ilarion was assigned to a parish in Porto, Portugal, and on March 21, 2004, was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by the Holy Synod of the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church.

On January 11, 2005, the Holy Synod elected Ilarion to the episcopacy as Bishop of Telmissus to serve as an auxiliary or assistant to the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Epiphanius of Spain and Portugal. On January 29, 2005, Bishop-elect Ilarion was consecrated to the episcopacy in the patriarchal Church of St. George in Constantinople.

Bishop Ilarion served in the Iberian Peninsula until, at the request of Metropolitan John of the UOCC, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected him diocesan Bishop of Edmonton on October 21, 2008. He was formally enthroned as Bishop of Edmonton and Western Canada on October 26, 2008, in Edmonton's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John.