Archimandrite Maxim Drăguț, Assistant Bishop-elect of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy, will be ordained to the episcopate at the Parish of the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste in Moncalieri, near Turin, Italy. Services will take place on 7–8 September.
The programme will begin on the evening of Monday, 7 September, with Great Vespers at 18:00, followed by the Proclamation of Election and Calling of the Bishop-Elect at 19:00.
On 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Matins will be officiated at 07:00, followed by the candidate’s profession of faith at 08:30.
The Divine Liturgy will begin at 09:30, during which Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe, together with other hierarchs of the Romanian Orthodox Church, will ordain the new Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Italy.
Archimandrite Maxim Drăguț was elected by the Holy Synod at its meeting on 2 July. The new hierarch will bear the title “Bishop of Danubius” and will serve alongside Bishop Siluan of Italy.
Brief biography
Archimandrite Maxim Drăguț was born on 10 April 1988. He graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Patriarch Justinian” in Bucharest and the Faculty of Economics and Public Administration in Suceava. He subsequently completed two master’s programmes, in Iași from 2014 to 2016 and in Bucharest from 2019 to 2021.
In 2025, he defended his doctoral thesis at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, entitled Continuity and Renewal in Ecclesiastical Management: Performance Management in the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina.
In 2013, he entered Sihăstria Putnei Monastery as a novice. He was tonsured a monk in 2015 and carried out several administrative obediences within the monastery, including serving as a guide, cashier, steward and coordinator of the chancery.
In 2018, he was ordained hierodeacon by Assistant Bishop Damaschin of Dorna of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți, and in 2020 he was ordained hieromonk. He was elevated to protosyncellus in 2021 and, in August 2025, was raised to archimandrite by Bishop Siluan of Italy.
Since 2024, he has served at the Chapel of St John the Evangelist at the Diocesan Centre in Rome. Archimandrite Maxim Drăguț currently serves as diocesan adviser within the Economic and Financial Department of the Diocese of Italy and coordinates the St Maximus of Turin Pastoral Centre.
Photo: BASILICA / Mircea Florescu
