( RT )- Metropolitan Laurus of New York, the top hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, has died at the age of 80 in Jordanville, New York. Born in Czechoslovakia, he has lived in New York since 1940s.
Metropolitan Laurus of New York graduated from the Holy Trinity Seminary.
In 1948 he was given the name Laurus.
In 1976 he was made abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery and in 2001 became the metropolitan of Eastern America and New York.
In 2007 he signed a historic treaty on reunification with the Russian Orthodox Church and took part in a joint liturgy with the Patriarch of Moscow of Russian Orthodox Church in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow.
The reunification ended almost 70 of the Church split.