Bishop Anthony was born Richard Anthony Michaels on the feast day of St. Anthony the Great (January 17, 1956) to parents Anthony and Gertrude Michaels and was baptized at St. Symeon the Stylite (also St. Simon the Zealot is commemorated) Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Ironwood, Michigan. Rick was raised with his sister, Joanne, and brother, Craig. The Orthodox church in Ironwood is pan-Orthodox and, therefore, included all ethnic Orthodox communities in the city. Bishop Anthony's father is Lebanese and his mother is Serbian. As a teen-ager, he was active in all varsity athletics at Ironwood High School, including his role as the starting quarterback of his football team.
Bishop Anthony attended the University of Michigan, where he received his B.A. in Literature, Science and the Arts, having a double major in History and English Literature. Following his university degree he attended St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree and graduated as a valedictorian of his class. Besides English, he has a reading knowledge of biblical Greek and is currently learning Arabic, at the request of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip of blessed memory.
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