 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 Roscoe 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.Though his father was non-practicing, his mother was devout.