Metropolitan Philaret; Head of Russian Church

Metropolitan Philaret, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church outside the Soviet Union for 21 years, has died at 82, a church spokesman said.

Philaret died Nov. 21 at his home in Manhattan, after a bout with cancer, Brother Isaac Lambertson said.

He was born Georgi Nikolayevich Voznesensky in 1903 in Kursk, Russia, the son of a priest. He and his family fled the Bolshevik Revolution in 1920, settling in China.

Voznesensky became a monk in 1931, taking the name Philaret, and was ordained deacon and priest that same year.

Philaret remained in China, despite the Communist takeover in 1949, and church officials finally managed to get him an exit visa in 1962. He emigrated to Hong Kong and then to Australia, where he was consecrated a bishop in 1963.

In 1964, while still the youngest and most junior of the bishops, he was elected head of the church on the retirement of Metropolitan Anastasy.

The New York-based church grew out of the revolution and currently has about 80,000 members around the world. It is fiercely anti-Communist, as opposed to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is based in Moscow.

Philaret made headlines in 1981 with the canonization of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and the tens of thousands who died for their faith under Soviet rule.

The 13 surviving bishops of the church will meet in January to choose his successor.