Bucharest, September 17, 2025
Photo: basilica.ro
The local proclamation of the canonization of St. Sofian (Boghiu) of Antim took place Tuesday, September 16, at Antim Monastery in Bucharest, celebrating a saint who lived into the 21st century and was canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod in July 2024. Later that month, his relics were uncovered at Căldărușani Monastery in Șoseaua, about 40 minutes northeast of Bucharest.
The joyous event began the previous evening, when His Grace Bishop Varlaam of Ploiești celebrated the Vigil service for the Venerable Confessor Sofian of Antim. In his sermon, Bp. Varlaam emphasized the joy of being able to honor a “saint of our times,” known by many believers in Bucharest and beyond.
“Behold, God has given us the joy of having a saint also from our times, whom most of us knew and enjoyed his presence, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit,” His Grace said. He noted that St. Sofian was among the Confessors from communist prisons, those who “understood in the most perfect sense what inner freedom means.”
Photo: basilica.ro
The Divine Liturgy for the occasion was celebrated on an exterior altar set up in the courtyard of the monastic establishment. The service was officiated by His Eminence Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube, together with His Eminence Metropolitan Siluan of Byblos and Botrys (Antiochian Patriarchate), His Grace Bishop Veniamin of Southern Bessarabia, His Grace Bishop Qais of Erzurum (Antiochian Patriarchate), and His Grace Varlaam of Ploiești and Paisie of Sinai and His Grace Bishop Timotei of Prahova, reports the Basilica News Agency.
The solemn moment of the local proclamation of St. Sofian of Antim’s canonization took place at the end of the Divine Liturgy. The Synodal Tomos was presented by Abp. Casian, after which the saint’s troparion was sung.
The document mentions several aspects of St. Sofian’s life, including his participation in the meetings of the Burning Bush spiritual movement. “St. Sofian learned during this period the work of prayer of the heart, apprenticing under Fr. Ioan Culîghin, a man of holy life, who had been formed in the Paisian hesychast tradition at Optina Monastery.”
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel sent a message on the occasion, saying: “In the 20th century, God gave the Romanians great spiritual luminaries who strengthened the people in faith through their prayers, deeds and teachings. Among these great ascetics is also the Venerable Confessor Sofian of Antim, who shone in Romania’s capital through his love and gentleness.”
Pat. Daniel highlighted three major works of St. Sofian of Antim: “In his holy life we can observe three main works that reveal the spiritual life that this holy venerable had. He was a confessor of the faith in an atheist regime, a hesychast spiritual father, and a church painter.”
Abp. Casian of Lower Danube said that the local proclamation of St. Sofian of Antim is a celebration of the “Apostle of Bucharest,” as he was known. “He was a spiritual father who never judged anyone and who loved his tormentors and regretted when he left the prison in Balta Brăila, saying he had lost the peace from there.”
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Photo: basilica.ro
St. Sofian (baptized Serghei Boghiu) was born on October 7, 1912, in Cuconeștii Vechi, Bălți County, and reposed in the Lord on September 14, 2002, at Antim Monastery in the capital. He became a brother at Rughi Monastery, Soroca county, in 1926 at age 14. He studied at the Singers’ School of Dobrușa Monastery, the Monastic Seminary at Cernica Monastery (1932-1940), the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest (1940-1945), and the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest (1942-1946).
He was tonsured as a monk at Dobrușa Monastery under the name Sofian (1937), ordained as a hierodeacon in 1939 and then as a hieromonk in 1945 for Antim Monastery in Bucharest, which he led as abbot between 1950-1955, then again in his final years. In 1958 he was arrested in the Burning Bush group and sentenced to 15 years in prison (released in 1964).
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him in 2024 with a feast day of September 16, alongside 15 other 20th-century confessors. The general proclamation of the canonization of the 16 saints took place on February 4 at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Romanian Patriarchate.
St. Venerable Sofian of Antim is the first canonized Orthodox saint who lived in the 21st century.
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