[1] The territory of the diocese covered fourteen states in the United States – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Archbishop Dmitri was born as Robert Royster in Teague, Texas on November 2, 1923, and was raised as a Southern Baptist, being baptized (by single immersion) in the name of the Holy Trinity at age 12.

[2]After attending Orthros and Divine Liturgy at age 15 he later recalled: "We knew from that moment that we would probably not go anywhere else...It was so evident that something really took place...the Holy Spirit transforming the bread and wine.

He and his sister were eventually received into Orthodoxy in 1941 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas, Texas.

While in the Army he served as a Japanese language interpreter on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines and Japan.

After leaving the Army he resumed his studies, eventually becoming a Spanish language instructor at Southern Methodist University.

On March 31, 2009 the then 85-year-old archbishop was granted retirement from active pastoral duties by the Holy Synod of the OCA.