Jaan Kiivit Sr.

Jaan Kiivit Senior (27 February 1906 - 3 August 1971) was an Estonian prelate who was the Archbishop of Tallinn and Primate of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church between 1949 and 1967.

The Most Reverend Jaan Kiivit Sr.
Archbishop of Tallinn Primate of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Church	Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Archdiocese	Tallinn
Elected	2 February 1949
In office	1949-1967
Predecessor	Johan Kõpp
Successor	Alfred Tooming
Orders
Ordination	16 July 1933
Personal details
Born	February 27, 1906 Tuhalaane, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (Present-day Estonia)
Died	August 3, 1971 (aged 65) Tallinn, Estonian SSR, Soviet Union
Buried	Rahumäe cemetery
Nationality	Estonian
Denomination	Lutheran
Parents	Jaan Kiivit & Leena Allik
Spouse	Gertrud Varik
Children	5

Biography

Kiivit was born in Tuhalaane, Viljandi County on February 27, 1906 in the Russian Empire. His father Jaan Kiivit and his mother Leena Allik were millers. From autumn 1925 to December 1932 he studied at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu. He was ordained priest on July 16, 1933 by Archbishop Jakob Kukk. In April 1933 he became a vicar in Jõhvi and in July 1933 he became a pastor in Emmaste, on the island of Hiiumaa. In 1940 he was elected Dean of the Viru deanery and became acting dean. On January 15, 1941 he became was confirmed as Dean, a title which he could not have before due to his young age. On June 6, 1948, he became pastor of St. John's Church, Tallinn and Dean of Tallinn. In that period he also acted as a substitute for the Archbishop, who had moved into exile in Sweden in 1944.

Archbishop

On February 2, 1949, he was appointed Bishop of Tallinn and Primate of the Estonian Church. On April 20, 1949 he was elected and confirmed by the Constituent Assembly as Deputy Bishop. On October 23, 1949, the 23rd Church Council of the EELC chose Kiivit as the first Archbishop of EELC, a post to hold for life. As archbishop, he was closely involved with ecumenism. In 1958 he participated in the first meetings of the Christian Peace Conference in Prague. He was later elected to the board of the CVC. In 1959 he participated in the festivities of the 550th anniversary of the University of Leipzig (renamed Karl-Marx University during the communist rule) in the German Democratic Republic and obtained an honorary doctorate. On August 31, 1967 Kiivit resigned from the post of archbishop due to poor health, but also because of increasing distance from the state authorities. He died on August 3, 1971 in Tallinn in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. His son Jaan Kiivit Jr. succeeded as Archbishop some years later. [1]

Agent for the KGB

KGB archives opened after the collapse of the Soviet Union showed that Kiivit an NKVD/KGB agent who was first recruited in 1948. His code name was Jüri I.[2]

References

1. "JAAN KIIVIT sen", Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Retrieved on 25 May 2019.
2. Puidet, R. "17 kevadist hetke. Peapiiskop Jaan Kiivit sen 1906–1971", Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Retrieved on 25 May 2019.