{"id":539308,"date":"2025-09-02T10:14:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=539308"},"modified":"2025-09-02T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:16:22","slug":"ecumenical-patriarchate-canonises-romanian-elders-mount-athos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/ecumenical-patriarchate-canonises-romanian-elders-mount-athos\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecumenical Patriarchate canonises two Romanian Elders from Mount Athos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, meeting in Constantinople on August 30\u201331, the final two days of the church year, decided<\/a> to canonise two Romanian elders of Mount Athos: hieroschemamonk Dionisie (Ignat) of Colciu and archimandrite Petroniu (T\u0103nase) of Prodromos Skete.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feast day of Saint Dionysius of Vatopedi (the \u201cSt. George\u201d Cell, where he lived, belonged to Vatopedi Monastery) will be celebrated on May 11, while the feast day of Saint Petronius of Prodromos Skete will be on February 24.<\/p>\n

Liturgical texts in Greek for their services were prepared by the Romanian Patriarchate and proposed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 2022, Romanian hierarchs discussed Romanian-language liturgical texts<\/a> for their services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two Romanians always kept the longing for their homeland\u2014both Father Dionisie Ignat and Father Petroniu T\u0103nase. They are appreciated not only by Romanians but also by the Greek monastics,\u201d Patriarch Daniel of Romania said during a meeting of the Synod of the Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobruja.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we wish to ask His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch to list among the saints the two Romanian-born Athonite Elders so that in 2025 they will be honoured together with the other twelve or thirteen lay priests and monkpriests who were spiritual fathers and confessors during the Communist period,\u201d Patriarch Daniel added.<\/p>\n

He also emphasised that the right to canonise belongs to the local Church where a person lived the last part of their life and where they reposed, in reference to the canonisation of the two Romanian Athonites.<\/p>\n

Later, at a synodal meeting last year<\/a>, Patriarch Daniel noted that the Romanian Orthodox Church had also proposed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate the canonisation of two other Romanian Athonite elders: Nectarios the Protopsaltes, also known as Nectarios the Vlach, nicknamed the \u201cNightingale of the Holy Mountain,\u201d and Elder Niphon, founder of the Romanian skete of the Honourable Forerunner.<\/p>\n

Saint Dionysius Ignat (1909-2004)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photo: Zoran Purger \/ Hagioretiki Phototheke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was the eighth and youngest child of a peasant family from Boto\u0219ani County in northern Romania. He attended only primary school, where he excelled, and a few years of vocational training.<\/p>\n

At 17, he arrived on Mount Athos with his brother, Monk Ghimnazie (Gymnasius), and gradually became one of the most experienced spiritual confessors on Mount Athos.<\/p>\n

He reposed in 2004 at the age of 95, having spent 78 years on Mount Athos. His funeral was attended by King Charles III of the United Kingdom, then Prince of Wales.<\/p>\n

Saint Petronius T\u0103nase (1914-2011)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photo: Prodromos Skete<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He entered Vovidenia Skete at Neam\u021b Monastery as a young man. He studied theology in Bucharest and briefly worked at the Chancellery of the Holy Synod and in the office of Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu.<\/p>\n

In 1978, with the approval of the Romanian state, he arrived on Mount Athos after the monks of Prodromos Skete requested assistance in reviving their community, which had been isolated for decades under communist rule in Romania.<\/p>\n

He was elected abbot in 1984 and led the brotherhood of Prodromos Skete until his repose in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rare that I have met someone both cultured and humble at the same time, as Father Petroniu was,\u201d said Metropolitan Serafim of Germany and Central and Northern Europe.<\/p>\n