Hélène Arjakovsky-Klépinine

This article traces the life and path to sainthood of Father Dimitri Klepinin (1904-1944), a Russian Orthodox émigré priest canonized in 2004 by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Written in the form of a biographical testimony by his daughter Hélène Arjakovsky-Klepinin, the text follows the stages of his spiritual and theological formation, from revolutionary Russia to the Saint Sergius Institute in Paris, by way of Belgrade and Prague. The central idea is that Father Dimitri's holiness was built through concrete action: welcoming the marginalized, resisting the Nazi occupation, and issuing false baptismal certificates to protect Jews. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 along with Mother Maria Skobtsova and their companions from Lourmel, he died at the Dora camp in February 1944. The article contributes to documenting the memory of Orthodox Christian resistance in occupied France.