Archimandrite Nicodim Petre elected to lead Bălți Diocese after years of youth ministry

Archimandrite Nicodim Petre, diocesan adviser in the Department for Mission, Statistics and Pastoral Planning of the Archdiocese of Iași and abbot of Bucium Monastery, was elected Bishop of Bălți at Thursday’s working session of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. His enthronement will take place on a date to be announced by the diocese.

The newly elected bishop is 58 years old and has been a monk for 26 years, having received monastic tonsure and ordination at Putna Monastery towards the end of 2000.

He graduated from the St Dumitru Stăniloae Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași in 1998, completed a master’s programme at the Andrei Șaguna Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu in 2009, and pursued doctoral studies at the St Sergius Institute in Paris between 2011 and 2013.

Ministry to young people During his university years, he served as vice-president of the Iași branch of the Association of Romanian Orthodox Christian Students and continued his missionary work among young people after completing his studies.

From 2013 to 2016, he served as a diocesan inspector in the Youth Mission Department of…