Abbot
Archimandrite Sergije (Puškar)
Archimandrite Sergije (Puškar) was born on March 25, 1990 in Sisak, Croatia. In 1995, due to the events of the war, his family fled from Krajina, Banija to Serbia, and two years later they moved to Chicago, USA. After completing elementary, middle, and high school studies, in 2009 he enrolled in the Holy Trinity Orthodox Theological Seminary in Jordanville, where he successfully graduated in 2013.
He continued his education at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he successfully completed his undergraduate (2013 – 2015) and master’s (2015 – 2017) academic studies. During his studies in Moscow, and with the blessing of his spiritual father, the metropolitan of Midwestern America was tonsured a monk on March 21, 2014 in Holy Trinity Saint Sergius Lavra.
He was tonsured by the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, the Archbishop of Verejsk Evgenije (the current Metropolitan of Tallinn and all of Estonia), giving him the name Sergije in honor of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh.
On June 15, 2014, by the hand of the same archbishop, he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon in the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Holy Trinity -Saint Sergius Lavra. A year later, on May 3, 2015, in the same church and by the hand of the same archbishop, he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk.
In 2017, as a scholarship holder of the Holy Synod of the Greek Archdiocese, he enrolled into the doctoral program at the Faculty of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During his studies in Greece, on March 25, 2018, the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Anthimos elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite in the Church of Saint Sophia in Thessaloniki.
He successfully completed his doctoral studies on November 11, 2022, having defended his doctoral thesis at the same faculty on the missionary work and theological teachings of Saint Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović.
On January 1, 2023, he was appointed abbot of the monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God- New Gračanica in Third Lake, USA. From the fall of 2023, he was elected as a professor and dean of students at the Orthodox Theological Faculty of St. Sava in Libertyville. He speaks Serbian, English, Russian, and Greek.
