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30/01/2025 | 16:32
Funeral of Archbishop of Albania Anastasios held in Tirana
The funeral for the late Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania Anastasios was held at the Orthodox cathedral in Tirana on Thursday, with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presiding.
The funeral service was attended by Orthodox patriarchs, archbishops, ecclesiastical delegations, representatives of the Vatican, a representative of the World Council of Churches and the heads of the religious communities of Albania.
Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece arrived together with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and a number of Greek government ministers. Delegations were also sent by main opposition PASOK-Movement for Change, led by party president Nikos Androulakis, and opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance with party leader Sokratis Famellos.
Albania’s state and political leadership, as well as several diplomatic missions in the country, were among the dignitaries attending, including Albanian President Bajram Begaj, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the country’s main opposition leader Sali Berisha.
Among those delivering funeral orations during the service were Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Locum Tenens of the Archbishop’s Throne Metropolitan John of Korçën, the coordinator of the World Council of Churches Bishop Heinrich Bedform-Strohm and the prime ministers of Greece and Albania.
Bidding farewell to Anastasios in his own oration, Patriarch Bartholomew said that “the great pillar of Orthodoxy in Albania has fallen”.
The funeral service concluded with the burial of the late archbishop in a special crypt within the cathedral, as per his wishes.
PM Mitsotakis: Archbishop Anastasios was a ‘bridge of friendship between our two peoples’
The passing of the late Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres and All Albania creates a void that will be hard to fill, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday in his funeral oration for the late Archbishop, during the service held in Tirana.
“The life and work of the prelate to which we today bid farewell can be summed up in the three words ‘we dare to hope’, I think. Because it was precisely courage and hope that always guided Anastasios on this admirable path of his. A path that was always at the side of people and their rights. Sometimes as a humble missionary in an Africa of hungry children. Sometimes as a quiet supporter of students in Greece under the dictatorship. And of course as the great restorer and tenacious trailblazer of Orthodoxy in Albania. We bow to this greatness of a unique personality because the Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and all of Albania was at the same time both an intellectual of the faith but also a simple servant of his neighbour,” Mitsotakis said.
The prime minister highlighted Anastasios’ achievements since he first arrived in Albania in 1991, “in a desolate country, after the passing of an authoritarian regime. And yet, drawing strength from his deep faith, he founded the Orthodox Autocephalous Church, established more than 400 parishes, built and rebuilt hundreds of churches, ordaining 145 new clergy, while at the same time establishing dozens of educational, health and charitable institutions, a small – or perhaps even a major – miracle amidst the ruins.”
“ The Archbishop has always been a bridge of friendship between our two peoples and a link of communication between our two states,” Mitsotakis pointed out, underlining that “ he could justly be called the diplomat of love in a mission which he himself served with moderation and awareness, and at the same time with unflagging dynamism”.
source ANA-MPA
