Athens, February 20, 2026
Pat. Bartholomew and Abp. Anastasios. Photo: ocl.org
His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, who reposed in the Lord last January, privately expressed deep bitterness in his final weeks over what he described as a “fratricidal war” waged against him by Constantinople on account of his theological stance on the Ukrainian Church question, a close associate has revealed.
The disclosure was made at a memorial event held at the University of Athens in honor of the late Archbishop. Among the speakers was Athonite Archimandrite Fr. Theologos Chrysanthakopulos, an architect and engineer who served as a close collaborator of Archbishop Anastasios in Albania.
Fr. Theologos recounted his last meeting with the archbishop in Tirana on December 15, 2024, just days before Anastasios fell ill, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists, with reference to video of his talk.
“He called me that evening to his office and we spoke at length,” Fr. Theologos said. “He was embittered by the Phanar’s fratricidal war against him personally, on account of his uncompromising theological position on the Ukrainian issue. He was pained and sorrowed over the schism in Orthodoxy in recent years, and he prayed for its unity. He bitterly he told me: ‘We haven’t concelebrated with the Patriarch for six years.’”
Abp. Anastasios was widely known for rebuilding the Albanian Orthodox Church from the ashes following decades of communist persecution, one of the most remarkable examples of ecclesiastical restoration in modern times. In his later years he was also known for his defense of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine, personally authoring two historical-theological studies in which he demonstrated that Constantinople’s granting of a tomos of autocephaly to the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” was anti-canonical.
OrthoChristian has previously reported that Archbishop Anastasios received insulting letters from Constantinople hierarchs and was accused of blasphemy by an Alexandrian hierarch for his support of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Other Constantinople clerics and commentators attacked him on the same grounds.
Fr. Theologos also noted that the Ukrainian autocephaly, rather than uniting Orthodox Christians in Ukraine as its proponents had hoped, widened the divide within the Ukrainian people and spread discord and schism throughout world Orthodoxy.
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