Los Angeles, May 16, 2025
Photo: shopify.com A new publication from St. George Press presents a collection of homilies from one of Romania’s greatest 20th-century elders.
Repentance and Resurrection: Homilies During the Triodion and Pentecostarion presents in English the inspiring words of St. Sofian (Boghiu) of Antim Monastery, who was one of the 16 martyrs, confessors, and ascetics canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 2024.
Fr. Sofian spent six years in communist prisons, after which he spent the last four decades of his life as abbot of Antim Monastery in Bucharest.
St. Cleopa of Sihăstria named him the “Apostle of Bucharest,” “for teaching the Jesus Prayer to countless young people, encouraging them to strive in unceasing prayer and to attain inner peace,” the Press writes.
The description of the book continues:
His teachings on prayer, directed to people living in a large city, are remarkable: “For modern life, it seems that God appointed this short prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner;’ or at least this prayer in short: ‘Jesus, have mercy on me,’ for any rush of everyday life in which we find ourselves. If we are in class listening to a lecture, at the studio, factory, on the road, or communicating with someone, at any moment we can say—from time to time and as often as possible—this prayer: ‘Jesus, have mercy on me!’”
In the face of the inner fragmentation perennial to modern life, Elder Sofian the “Urban Hesychast” provides a clear path for the contemporary reader to follow. Amidst growing social alienation, psychological isolation, and anti-Christian sentiments, Fr. Sofian teaches us that we can and must pursue the Prayer of the Heart, that we can practice the teachings found in the Philokalia and Sayings of the Desert Fathers, that it does not depend on our outer environment, but on an inner environment of perseverance in prayer. In the vein of St. Seraphim of Sarov, he says that this is actually our duty to society, because “if we succeed in making space for God within us, all the better for us, but also for others.” Praying unceasingly with attention and zeal amidst the rush of contemporary life and purifying our hearts of passions, we become useful to society, able to benefit those around us, and “then without a doubt our inner life will be reborn and we will be a joy to all those are around us—through prayer we will be able to help those who cannot pray and are in need of prayer.”
Repentance and Resurrection: Homilies During the Triodion and Pentecostarion by St. Sofian of Antim can be purchased from St. George Press.
The Press also offers several other publications representing the Romanian Orthodox tradition, including the akathist to St. John Jacob of Hozeva by St. Cleopa.
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Fr. Sofian was born on October 7, 1912 in Cuconeștii Vechi. He became a brother of Rughi Monastery in Soroca County in 1926. He studied at the school for singers at Dobrușa Monastery, at the monastic seminary in Cernica Monastery (1932-1940), at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest (1940-1945), and at the Department of Theology in Bucharest (1942-1946).
He was tonsured as a monk with the name Sofian at Dobrușa Monastery in 1937. He was ordained as a hierodeacon in 1939 and as a hieromonk in 1945 for the Antim Monastery in Bucharest. He served as abbot of the monastery from 1950 to 1955 and again in the last years of his life.
He was arrested in 1958 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, though he was released in 1964. He spent the rest of his life at Antim Monastery, where he reposed on September 14, 2002. He was buried at Căldărușani Monastery in Gruiu in Ilfov County.
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