Father Michel fell asleep in the Lord on 1 July 2025 at the Russian House in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.
The place and date of the funeral will be announced later.
Michel Evdokimov, born on 19 September 1930 in Menton, was the son of the great theologian of the Russian emigration Paul Evdokimov. A holder of the agrégation in English who taught at the École alsacienne and then went on to be professor of comparative literature at the University of Poitiers for 27 years, Michel Evdokimov specialized in French, English and Russian literature. In 1981 he defended a doctorate on Khomiakov and the Slavophiles. After his retirement, he also taught at the Collège des Bernardins.
In the early 1960s, with the help, among others, of his father Paul Evdokimov, he was at the origin of the creation of the French-language parish of the Holy Trinity, located in the crypt of the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, rue Daru in Paris, whose choir he directed for almost twenty years. His knowledge of music (he was one of the singers of the famous Kedroff Quartet in the 1950s) enabled him to undertake substantial work to adapt the liturgical texts and melodies into French.
On his first journey to Russia, he discovered his true vocation: the priesthood. In 1979 he was ordained deacon and then became a priest in 1981 in the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Ecumenical Patriarchate). He first served for a time at the crypt on rue Daru, guided by Father Boris Bobrinskoy, then rector of the parish, who trained him for his new duties. He then went on to serve various parishes such as St Nicholas in Boulogne-Billancourt and Our Lady Sovereign in Chaville. But his vocation was also missionary. He decided to found a new parish, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, in Châtenay-Malabry, south of Paris, after realizing that many Orthodox lived in this area but no longer practised for lack of a church near their homes. Later he would also found a parish in Poitiers. Having remained rector of the parish of Saints Peter and Paul until his retirement in 2019, Father Michel and his family remained faithful to Metropolitan John of Dubna, with whom he had shared a theological and ecclesial vision and ties of friendship for many years.
Involved in the Orthodox Fraternity, he was co-founder and director of the Orthodox Press Service (SOP), and a member of the editorial board of the journal of Orthodox spirituality Contacts. Always in this spirit of bearing witness and making the Orthodox faith known to the West, he also regularly took part in radio programmes (France-Culture, Radio Notre-Dame…), as well as on television, notably in the programme Orthodoxie and on the KTO channel. He was a member of the steering committee of the association Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) for many years.
In addition to his pastoral activity, Father Michel Evdokimov was always deeply committed to the ecumenical movement, and for a long time he was a delegate for ecumenism. A fervent worker for pan-Orthodox unity, he was at the origin of the creation of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in France (AEOF), of which he was secretary for many years.
Father Michel was married to Marie-Claire, granddaughter of the historian Jules Isaac, father of a daughter, Sophie, and grandfather of four. From his earliest years, Father Michel devoted himself to the radiance of the Orthodox Church in France, working for its liturgical and eucharistic renewal, its rootedness and local identity, for pan-Orthodox unity and its openness to ecumenical dialogue. Through his many books and articles, his lectures, his homilies, his translations from English and Russian of eminent theologians and pastors, and his action, he was a voice and a face that contributed greatly to the radiance of Orthodoxy in France.