Beginning to pray

Anthony was born as Andrei Bloom on 19 June 1914, in Lausanne, Switzerland. He spent his early childhood in Russia and Iran. During the Russian Revolution the family had to leave Iran, and by 1923 they were settled in Paris, where he was educated. He graduated in physics, chemistry and biology, and took his doctorate in medicine at the University of Paris. In 1939, before leaving for the front as a surgeon in the French Army, he secretly professed monastic vows in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1943 he was tonsured and received the name of Anthony. During the occupation of France by Nazi Germany he worked as a doctor, and took part in the French Resistance. In 1957 he was consecrated as bishop, and as archbishop in 1962 in charge of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain and Ireland. In 1963 he was appointed exarch of the Moscow Patriarchate in Western Europe, and in 1966 was assigned the rank of metropolitan bishop. Source