During its Thursday meeting, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church elected assistant bishops for two Romanian Dioceses in the Diaspora.
The V. Rev. Archimandrite Atanasie Rusnac was elected assistant bishop to the Romanian Orthodox diocese of Italy. He will bear the title of His Grace Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania.
The V. Rev. Archimandrite Teofil Roman was elected by the Holy Synod as assistant bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Spain and Portugal. He will bear the title of His Grace Bishop Teofil of Iberia.
Bishop-elect Atanasie of Bogdania was born in 1982 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, receiving the Romanian citizenship in 2010. He studied telecommunications at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon France and pastoral theology at the St Serge Institute in Paris. He graduated a master program in Canonical Law at St Andrei Saguna Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Sibiu. In 2011 he was appointed chancellor (diocesan vicar) of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy.
Bishop-elect Teofil of Iberia was born in 1971 in Desesti, Maramures County. He studied Orthodox Theology in Cluj-Napoca. In 1992 he was tonsured a monk. From 1995 to 2008 he was appointed spiritual director of the Life-Giving Spring Monastery in Salva. In 2002 he was appointed exarch of the monasteries of the Archdiocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj. In 2008 he was appointed ecclesiarch (sacristan) of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Cluj-Napoca and chairman of the Archdiocesan Monastic Consistory. In 2013 he was awarded the highest distinction in the Romanian Patriarchate, the Patriarchal Cross. He hosts a weekly radio show called the ABC of Faith at the Cluj Archdioce’s Renasterea Radio Station.
Photography courtesy of Robert Nicolae / Basilica.ro
