5
May 1875 – Metropolitan NIFON (baptised Nicolae Rusailă) passed away in
Bucharest (buried at Cernica). Monk at Cernica in 1809 and ordained
hierodeacon for the Metropolitan See, later on hieromonk (1826), iconom
at the Diocese of Râmnic (1827), archimandrite (1826), abbot at Cozia
(1839), vicar of the Metropolitan See of Ungro-Wallachia (1841),
ordained hierarch with the title of “Sevastias” (1843), Bishop locum
tenens of Râmnic (1848 – 1850) and, at the same time “metropolitan locum
tenens” (August 1849 – September 1850). On 14 September 1850, elected
Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia (enthroned on 8 October); on 11 January
1865 he was awarded the title of “Primate Metropolitan of Romania”,
serving till his death. During his pastoral service the eparchial
Seminaries were opened (closed during the Revolution of 1848); in 1852
he set up a printing house of the Metropolitan See, where almost all the
books of rite were printed (soon after taken over by the state); he
re-established a few places of worship on his own expense: Zamfira
Monastery, Cetățuia Skete in Râmnicu Vâlcea and built the church of
Letca Nouă from the scratch (today the county of Giurgiu). He was the
president of the Ad Hoc Council of Bucharest (1857) and of the elective
Assembly who elected Alexandru Ioan Cuza prince (24 January 1859); he
was the first president of the Romanian Senate. During his pastoral
service the famous church reforms of Alexandru Ioan Cuza took place, but
he did not react against them (secularization, synodal law, law that
appointed eparchial metropolitans and bishops and set up the Holy Synod
of the Romanian Orthodox Church). In 1872, he set up – with his own
money – a second Seminary in Bucharest, with 8 forms, of his name,
operating till 1948, when it was dissolved; the seminary lived on the
money the Metropolitan bequeathed and on the incomes of the Letca Nouă
estate.
