[1] Metropolitan Christopher (Kovacevich) was born in Galveston, Texas into a family of Serbian immigrants from Montenegro (he was the ninth of twelve children).

[1][2] After graduation from high school, he attended Nashotah House, an Anglo-Catholic seminary of the Episcopal Church located in Nashotah, Wisconsin and subsequently studied and graduated from St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois where he learned Serbian.

Later in life, Metropolitan Christopher was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree (honoris causa) by Nashotah House[3] After graduating from St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Seminary he married the late Milka Kovacevich and afterward was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 1951.

Metropolitan Christopher also frequently returned to the city of his birth to preside at weddings and baptisms at Saints Constantine and Helen Serbian Orthodox Church.

[1] Metropolitan Christopher died on August 18, 2010, in Libertyville, Illinois due to complications from bone, brain, and stomach cancer.