By Kabuye Ronald
As the country and in particular the Orthodox church prepares for the enthronement of His Eminence Metropolitan Jeronymos Muzeeyi as Archbishop of Holy Metropolis of Kampala on 20th, February, 2022 at St. Nicolas Cathedral Namungoona, Kampala we bring you his full biography.
His Eminence Metropolitan Jeronymos Muzeeyi was born on March 18, 1962 in Bulopa, Kamuli District, Uganda into an Orthodox family of Mr. Augustinos Kakombe and Mrs Agnes Biribawa. He is the first born among the four children of the couple.
EDUCATION BACKGROUND
Metropolitan Jeronymos attained elementary level education at Kasaka primary School, Secondary and High school education at Chwa II memorial college and Kololo Secondary school respectively between the years 1969 to 1984.
After attaining elementary education, he went to the Orthodox Seminary in Nairobi Kenya where he worked briefly in the library in 1985.
In 1986 to 1995 he attained University Level Education at the University of Athens, School of Theology, Greece where he pursued a Bachelors of Theology and Post – Graduate course in Canon Law
PRIESTHOOD LIFE
On July 1, 1995 Metropolitan Jeronymos was ordained to the Deaconate by His Grace, Bishop Theodoros Kyrineos, now the Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, and then to the priesthood on February 1, 1996 by Metropolitan Iakovos of Argos and later that year he was honored the title of Archimandrite by Bishop Theodoros Kyrineos.
Between 1996 to 1997 he served as the Vicar General of the Holy Archdiocese of Kampala and All Uganda and after a year he was assigned to serve as Vicar General in Holy Diocese of Bukoba, Tanzania between 1997 – 1999.
He was Elected a Bishop on November 24, 1999 and ordained on December 11, 1999 to serve in the Holy Diocese of Bukoba where he served until 2007 and after which he was elevated to the rank of a Metropolitan on November 23, 2007 to serve in the Holy Metropolis of Mwanza and Western Tanzania.
On January 12, 2022, He was elected by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa to be the Archbishop of the Holy Metropolis of Kampala.
MISSION ACHIEVEMENTS
In 1996 – 1997 during his service as Vicar General of the Holy Metropolis of Kampala, he assisted the ailing Metropolitan Theodoros Nankyama in the day to day running of the Metropolis. And upon the Metropolitan’s death, he successfully organised a two week mourning period followed by a national burial ceremony.
During his tenure in Tanzania from 5th September 1997 to 12th January 2022, His Eminence contributed to the Mission with commendable Achievements as listed below;
He opened 150 new communities, baptised over 33,000 faithfuls, ordained 40 priests, built 114 churches, conducted priests’ seminars 4 times a year and organized social welfare programs for priests, widows and orphans. He also organized catechists, women and youth groups and on frequent basis, he organized for them seminars and retreats on different topics.
He drafted and lodged a new church constitution in the ministry of home affairs of Tanzania.
He built a Church hospital in Bukoba, 10 health centers and 7 clinics and also organized and promoted on regular basis outreach medical missions to villages which process saved hundreds of lives.
He built two seminaries, two secondary schools of 600 students’ capacity, offered thousands of scholarships. It’s on the basis of such educational establishments that the local Church in Tanzania now has many engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers to mention but a few.
His Eminence also set up a national water drilling company with modern drilling machines with the aim of reaching safe and clean water to people in different villages through boreholes.
He also built a 2000 square meter administrative and cultural center in the city of Mwanza to be used as the Archbishop’s residence, a center for the main office alongside other offices, a conference hall, radio, library archive etc.
In order to improve the communities’ income, His Eminence gave out goats, exotic milk cows, and sewing machines. He planted over 500,000 pine trees for environmental protection and projects and also organized a 3000 acre farm to cultivate beans, ground nuts and maize.
OTHER MISSIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
In 2004, His Eminence visited and celebrated liturgies at the Holy Mountain of Sinai, Egypt, where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments.
In 2005 he was appointed to be a member of the Holy Synod (Collage of Bishops – Africa) of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa and he serves on the following committees;
Inter-Orthodox Relations committee
Pan Africa Council of Churches Committee
In 2009 the Metropolitan was selected by of His Beatitude Theodoros II to be part of the Patriarchal delegation of his official visit to Tirana, Albania.
In 2013 he took part in the dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Evangelicals in Tirana, Albania as a representative of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
In 2015 he was among the members of the preparatory committee in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Great and Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church.
In 2016 he opened the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas Mwanza city upon completion of construction and the Church was consecrated by His Beatitude Theodoros II.
In 2017 he visited and celebrated liturgies in the Holy lands of Israel and in 2019 he also visited and celebrated liturgies at the Holy Mountain center (Mt. Athos) of the Orthodox Monastic life in Greece.
In January 2022, he was elected the Archbishop of Holy Metropolis of Kampala replacing the late Archbishop Jonah Lwanga, who passed on the 5th of September 2021 in Athens, Greece.
LANGUAGES
His Eminence Jeronymos is fluent in Greek, English, Swahili, Luganda and Lusoga languages
