Irenaeus Bekish
Primate of the Orthodox church of America (1892-1981)
Metropolitan Irenaeus (Ireney, Russian: Ириней, secular name John Bekish, born Ivan Dmitriyevich Bekish, Russian: Иван Дмитриевич Бекиш, Polish: Jan Bekisz; 2 October 1892, Mezhirech, Lublin Province (now Poland) – 18 March 1981, Staten Island, New York) was the primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) from 1965 until his retirement in 1977. He was succeeded by Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor).
Metr. Ireney was involved in the negotiations that led to the granting of autocephaly in 1970 to the OCA, which had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. As the primate of a now-autocephalous Church, Metr. Ireney was granted the title of His Beatitude.
“Irenaeus Bekish” enters the record as primate of the Orthodox church of America (1892-1981). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Irenaeus, Bekish and Primate can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Irenaeus Bekish” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Irenaeus, Bekish and Primate provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4203203. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1892, 1981, 1965 and 1977.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Irenaeus Bekish” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.