Metropolitan Nifont of Lutsk and Volyna

In the world - Vasilii Andreevich Solodukha.

He was born on October 5, 1948, in the village of Galina-Volya, of the Stavrovyzhevsk Region, in the Volyna Province, into a rural family. He became an orphan as a two-year-old boy.

In 1963, he completed elementary school.

From 1963 to 1967, he worked in a kolkhoz.

From 1967 to 1969, he served in the Soviet Army.

From 1969 to 1970, he worked in the railroad DELO in Brest.

From 1970 to 1974, he studied in the Moscow Theological Seminary. From 1971 to 1974, he was the subdeacon under His Holiness Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov, +1990).

On March 20, 1974, he received the monastic tonsure with the name of Nifont, in honor of St. Nifont, Bishop of Novgorod, the Wonderworker of Kiev-Pechersk. His tonsure was celebrated in the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk).

In 1974, he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon by His Holiness Patriarch Pimen.

In 1974, he enrolled in the Moscow Theological Academy (MTA).

In 1977, he was ordained to the office of hieromonk and appointed to the Diocese of Volyna by the rector of the MTA with Archbishop Vladimir (Sabodan).

On March 18, 1977, he was appointed the dean of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Rudko-Kozinsk, in the Rozhishchensk Region, in the Volyna Province, by Archbishop Damian (Marchuk, +1987) of Volyna and Rovena.

In 1988, he was elevated to the office of archimandrite by Archbishop Varlaam (Il'yushchenko, +1990) of Volyna and Rovena. In 1989, he was appointed the dean of the Rozhishchensk District of the Diocese of Volyna and Rovena.

On March 20, 1990, at the meeting of the Holy Synod, he was appointed Bishop of Khmel'nitsy and Kam'yanets-Podol'e. He was consecrated in Kiev on March 31, 1990. During his two and a half years of service in the Diocese of Khmel'nitsy, thanks to the care of Bishop of Nifont, the Cathedral of the Holy Veil (Svyato-Pokrovskii) Cathedral was built, and a diocesan administration was appointed, which consecrated 96 newly-constructed churches. A significant growth in spirituality was noticed throughout the entire Khmel'nitsy region. In 1991, upon the request of Vladyka Nifont, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the opening of a two-year Theological School in Khmel'nitsy. In that same year, the newspaper "Blagovist Khmel'nychyni" began to be published.

According to the Ukaz of the Holy Synod of the UOC on August 25, 1992, in connection with the complicated, interconfessional situation in Lutsk, Bishop Nifont was assigned to the Volyna See as Bishop of Volyna and Lutsk.

On July 28, 1993, Bishop Nifont was elevated to the office of Archbishop.

On April 11, 2001, by an Ukaz of His Beatitude Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, president of the UOC, Archbishop Nifont was elevated to the office of Metropolitan.