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Righteous Joachim and Anna · Ven. Joseph of Volotsk
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35 years ago: A day that was going to change everythingtranslated

July 16, 2026 · 1 min read

On this day, in the distant 1991, at the Rina Airport in Tirana, the Olympic flight landed with the most expected and at the same time the most unusual for the parts of Albania, passenger.

By Orpheus Betsis

This is the most historic moment for Orthodoxy in Albania, which would essentially determine its entire development and overturn any developments that foreign centers who wanted to manipulate it wanted to impose.

In Tirana, the Patriarchal Exarch and later Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and all Albania Mr. Anastasios landed.

Thirty-five years ago, exactly.

At the beginning of January and while he was in Nairobi, the Ecumenical Patriarch Sir Dimitrios, Synod had appointed the blessed Bishop of Androusi at the time Sir Anastasios, Patriarchal Exarch. He was called with a special request for acceptance by Patriarch Dimitrios and the then Metropolitan Chalkidon - current Ecumenical Patriarch Mr. Bartholomew on an unprecedented, unexpected mission, as he later defined it.

Anastasios of obedience and response to great challenges, accepted it and immediately prepared to go to Athens.

Source: Orthodoxia News Agency  ·  Read the full story →
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Юрій Марченко
It is interesting that it was in January 1991, when he was in Nairobi, that Patriarch Dimitri appointed him. And how old was he when he arrived in Tirana? Thank you for the reminder of this important date.
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