Manta, Cahul District, Moldova, May 26, 2025
Photo: Facebook
St. Sofian (Boghiu) of Antim Monastery, one of the great elders of the 20th century canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church last July, was honored this weekend with a newly consecrated church being placed under his Heavenly protection.
On Saturday, April 24, the church for the parish of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in the Moldovan village of Manta was consecrated by three hierarchs of the Romanian Church: Their Graces Bishop Casian of Lower Danube, Bishop Veniamin of Southern Bessarabia, and Bishop Visarion of Tulcea, with priests and deacons from Romania and Moldova, reports the Diocese of Southern Bessarabia.
The parish community was founded in 1993, and the cornerstone for the church was laid in 1997. Several priests served there through 2018, each contributing to the building of the church. From 2019 to April of this year, the church underwent extensive finishing work including exterior completion, interior plastering preparation, flooring installation, iconography, and the creation of carved oak furniture and an iconostasis.
Photo: Facebook
With the consecration of the newly finished church, it was given the additional patron of St. Sofian of Antim, who was born in Cuconeștii, Bessarabia, in 1912.
After reading the Holy Gospel, Bp. Casian delivered a homily in which he presented the spiritual significance of the consecration ritual and highlighted the sacrificial confession of Orthodox faith by the great Orthodox Romanian saints of the past century.
Following the service, parish rector Fr. Petru Veste gifted each hierarch and omophorion and epitrachelion as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the consecration.
All believers present received icons and were invited to a fraternal meal.
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Photo: ortodox.md
St. 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.
His relics were exhumed on July 29, 2024.
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