On Wednesday, His Grace Bishop Siluan of Italy marks his 55th birthday.
Born on March 5, 1970, in Gura Râului, Sibiu County, he was the fourth of six children in a priest’s family.
Theological Studies and Early Ministry
Between 1989 and 1993, he studied at the Andrei Șaguna Faculty of Theology in Sibiu, followed by doctoral studies at the Saint-Serge Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris from 1994 to 1998.
He was ordained a deacon in 1994 and later as a celibate priest, serving at the chapel of the Faculty of Theology in Sibiu.
From 1994 to 2001, he served as a priest and confessor at the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery in Bussy-en-Othe, Yonne, France.
In 1999, he was appointed parish priest of the Saint Paraskeva and Saint Genevieve community in Paris. Two years later, he took monastic vows.
Episcopal ministry in Europe
On July 5, 2001, he was appointed Assistant Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Western and Southern Europe, with the title Bishop of Marsilia. He was ordained to the episcopacy on October 21, 2001, at Saint Joseph Church of the Bordeaux Parish in France.
On March 5, 2008, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church elected him as the first Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Italy. His enthronement took place on May 8, 2008.
Photo: Basilica.ro
