During the working session of the Holy Synod on July 21, the Romanian hierarchs adopted an Anniversary Act on the occasion of the 70th birthday of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

The document was read out by Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina at the end of the Divine Liturgy celebrated on Thursday, July 22, 2021.

Holy Synod’s Anniversary Act: full text

We ascribe doxology to our God worshipped in Trinity, Who vouchsafed us to reach the celebration of July 22, 2021, when Their Eminences and Their Graces the Hierarchs of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with the members of the Permanent National Church Council and The Diocesan Council of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, with all the Romanian clergy, monastics and Orthodox believers, share the joy of His Beatitude DANIEL, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobruja, Locum tenens of the Throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia, and Patriarch of Romania, on his 70th birthday.

Over time, God has given the Romanian Orthodox Church providential shepherds, who, through their sacrifice and wisdom, have skillfully steered the Ship of Salvation of the Romanian people through often hostile waves.

God ordained that in the village of Dobrești, Bara commune, Timiș county, the third child be born in the family of the teacher Alexie and Stela Ciobotea, receiving at baptism the names of the great prophets Daniel and Elijah.

The spiritual life of his family, especially of his pious mother, graced the aspirations of the young Dan Ilie. After completing high school, the desire to know God determined him to enrol in the Orthodox University Theological Institute in Sibiu, which he graduated in 1974.

Being endowed with a bright mind and strong will, understanding that deep calls to deep, he attended, between 1974-1976, the doctoral courses at the Orthodox University Theological Institute in Bucharest, under the guidance of Rev. Prof. Dr Dumitru Stăniloae.

The meeting with the greatest Romanian theologian of the 20th century increased the call to high theology in his heart, for which the theologian Dan Ilie Ciobotea continued his studies abroad: in Strasbourg – France (1976-1978) and Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany (1978-1980).

On June 15, 1979, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Strasbourg, entitled “Réflexion et vie chrétiennes aujourd’hui. Essay on the relationship between theology and spirituality,” receiving the maximum grade.

In 1987 he became a monk at Sihăstria Monastery, receiving the name Daniel, during the stewardship of Archimandrite Victorin Oanele, having as monastic godfather the zealous hermit and saintly missionary, Archimandrite Cleopas Ilie.

In the same year, he was ordained a hierodeacon and a hieromonk, and in 1988 he was elevated to the rank of protosyncellus and appointed a Patriarchal Counselor and Director of the Contemporary Theology and Ecumenical Dialogue Sector, being esteemed by the Patriarch Teoctist.

After standing for eight years as a professor of theology in Bossey, Switzerland, where he passionately and competently promoted Orthodoxy and its immortal values in front of hundreds of young theologians of various denominations around the world, in 1988, he became Associate Professor at the Department of Christian Mission of the Orthodox University Theological Institute in Bucharest.

He was elected Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Timișoara, with the title of Bishop of Lugoj and ordained to the episcopate on March 4, 1990, being appreciated for the effort with which he crowned his youth with thorough theological training.

In the same year, he was elected Archbishop of Iasi and Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, the enthronement taking place on July 1, 1990. In this dignity, he carried out a rich founding, pastoral-missionary, theological, cultural and social-philanthropic activity.

On September 12, 2007, the Church’s Electoral College elected him Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, being enthroned on September 30, 2007, at the Patriarchal Cathedral.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel energized church life in all its aspects, following the thread of the sacrificial work in Moldavia. In the autumn of 2010, began the construction of the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral, a symbol of Romanian communion and national dignity, but also a practical, liturgical and missionary necessity, sealed with grace overflowing by the consecration service of the Holy Altar, officiated by His Beatitude together with His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the hierarchs of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, on November 25, 2018, the Centennial of the creation of Greater Romania.

At the same time, His Beatitude carried out a rich and remarkable activity in the field of external church relations by promoting dialogue with the sister Orthodox Churches and other Christian communities and cooperation with European and world Christian organizations and the level of local interchurch relations.

Knowing the large number of Romanian Orthodox believers outside Romania, Patriarch Daniel developed and intensified the mission and pastoral responsibility of the Romanian Orthodox Church for the Romanian Orthodox communities in the diaspora by establishing new dioceses, numerous parishes and acquiring offices and places of worship.

We offer a humble prayer to the Most Holy and Life-giving Trinity Who, in Her love poured out on the Romanian right-believing people, ordained as Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church a pious, sacrificial and wise hierarch, who, in not easy times, with profound changes in society, is a proper and bright guide to the Romanian clergy, monastics and Orthodox believers in the country and the diaspora.

We pray to the Most Merciful God to grant him total health, spiritual joys and increased powers in fulfilling the mission of the First Shepherd of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

This Anniversary Act was drawn up as a testimony over the years, which was read out in the Patriarchal Cathedral on July 22, 2021, at the age of 70 of His Beatitude Daniel, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobruja, Locum tenens of the Throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia and Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church