Source: Basilica News Agency
November 2, 2016
Photo: http://basilica.ro/
His Eminence Hon Archbishop Justinian, Bishop of Maramureş and Sătmar, passed away to the Lord at the age of 95 Saturday, 30 October 2016, after suffering a heart attack.
Archbishop Justinian was born on 28 May 1921 in Plopiş Village, Maramureş County, in a family of devout peasants, receiving the name of John at Baptism.
Feeling a fiery love to serve God, on 12 March 1941 he entered the Monastery of St Anna in Rohia. Later that year he was tonsured a monk receiving the name of Justinian. On 15 August 1942 he was ordained a hierodeacon, and on 17 Aprilie 1943 he was ordained hieromonk by Bishop Nicolae Colan of Vad, Feleac and Cluj. At the early age of 23, the young hieromonk Justinian was appointed abbot of Rohia Monastery, where he served in this dignity for almost 30 years.
At the proposal of Bishop Teofil of Cluj, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church raised Fr Justinian to the rank of archimandrite in 1967. In 1973, he was ordained Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj. In September 1990, he was elected Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Maramureş and Sătmar, being enthroned on 11 November 1990. On 13 December 2009, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, presided over the ceremony at St Trinity Cathedral in Baia Mare, in which Bishop Justinian was raised to the rank of Archbishop.