Archimandrite Peter (secular name: Peter A. Karakozoff) was born on September 24, 1976, in the city of Sacramento, California. His parents—Alexander F. Karakozoff (1919–1986) and Irina M. Karakozoff (maiden name Malkevich, 1933–2019)—came from émigré families that had settled in the West as early as the 1920s, preserving in their new homeland the language, faith, and way of life of their native land. Russia. His father worked as a hydraulic engineer in government service, and his mother owned an orthodontic laboratory in Sacramento. An only child, Peter was baptized in November 1976 at the Church of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women in Bryte, CA.
The Orthodox faith permeated the entire way of life of the Karakozoff family from Peter’s earliest childhood. At the age of four, the future monk began serving in the altar of the very church where he had been baptized, and he carried out this obedience with love until the age of eighteen. On May 15, 1991, His Grace Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) tonsured him as a reader. After finishing high school, he served as a psalmist in his home parish, and in 1998 became choir director at the neighboring Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church of Sacramento (ROCOR).
Fr. Peter received his secular education at American River College and then at the University of California, Davis, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in History in 2000. Since the fall of 2022, he has been enrolled in a Master of Divinity program at the Antiochian House of Studies under the guidance of Archpriest Patrick O’Grady, a well-known expert in liturgical theology.
In 2003, when his government service contract expired, Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America recognized in him a person capable of serving the Church and offered him the position of administrative secretary in the diocesan chancery. For ten years (2003–2013), Fr. Peter worked in this capacity, gaining a deep understanding of the inner life and structure of the Church, while also accompanying the Archbishop as a subdeacon on visits throughout the vast diocese. In May 2007, he accompanied Archbishop Kyrill to Moscow for the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion. This journey became a true revelation for him: for the first time, he fully experienced what it means to be an Orthodox Christian in a country where Orthodoxy forms the foundation of national and cultural life. In February 2009, he was elected as a lay delegate from the Western American Diocese to the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2010, he was involved in the organizing committee for the historic visit of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna to the West Coast of the United States—the first such visit by the head of the Russian Imperial House to the region. In subsequent years, he took part with consistent dedication in organizing several major events: the Fort Ross Bicentennial Anniversary (2012), a symposium in memory of P.A. Stolypin (2012), and the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the House of Romanov (2013). In September 2019, he was part of the official delegation accompanying the wonderworking “Kursk-Root” Icon of the Mother of God to Kursk, Russia.
With the blessing of his spiritual father, His Grace Bishop Theodosius of Seattle, and Archbishop Kyrill, in the autumn of 2014 he entered the Monastery of St. Job of Pochaev in Obermenzing near Munich—a monastery under the spiritual guidance of Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany, a disciple of St. Justin (Popovich). However, circumstances related to the Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco required Archbishop Kyrill to recall the future Fr. Peter back to the diocese.
On the night of December 25–26, 2014, His Grace Theodosius tonsured him into the small schema with the name Peter, in honor of the Hieromartyr Peter of Krutitsk, and he was received into the monastic Brotherhood of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. On January 7, 2015, Archbishop Kyrill ordained him as a hierodeacon and assigned him to serve at the Holy Virgin Cathedral. During these years, Schema-Archdeacon Ambrose (Taratukhin) became his spiritual “brother” and mentor. Father Ambrose was a living encyclopedia of the Church Typikon and guardian of liturgical tradition, and former cell-attendant of the ever-memorable Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev). In November 2015, Hieromonk Peter was awarded the double orarion, and on January 7, 2017, he was elevated to the rank of archdeacon.
On August 5, 2023, Archbishop Kyrill ordained Father Peter a hieromonk, granting him the nabedrennik, and appointed him as a priest attached to Old Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco. On September 17/30, 2025, Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of ROCOR, awarded him a gold pectoral cross.
Since 2024, Fr. Peter has served as the second deputy chairman of the Department of Education of the Western American Diocese for Liturgical Education and, together with Archpriest Patrick O’Grady, is developing a training program for the clergy of the Diocese. In 2018, 2022, and 2025, he taught liturgics in the deaconal training program of the Orthodox Church in America. In December 2024, by decision of the Synod of Bishops, he was entrusted with continuing the work of the late Archbishop Peter (Lukyanov) on compiling a codification of the liturgical traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
At the winter session of the Synod of Bishops in 2025, Hieromonk Peter was elected Bishop of Seattle, vicar of the Western American Diocese. On December 28, 2025, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen with the presentation of the palitsa, and on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, January 7, 2026, to the rank of archimandrite. His episcopal consecration is expected on March 28, 2026, in San Francisco.
