The Reverend Father Varlaam Ploieșteanul is celebrating his birthdaytranslated

The Most Reverend Father Varlaam Ploieșteanul, Patriarchal Vicar Bishop, turns 66 on Wednesday - of which almost three decades in the service of the Church.

The hierarch was born on October 28, 1960 in Știubieni, Botoșani county - an area where faith plays a very important role in people's lives - and was baptized Vasile by his pious parents.

Academic activity His Eminence is a graduate of the Neamț Monastery Theological Seminary (1977-1982) and of the University Degree Theological Institute in Bucharest (1983-1987), where he also pursued doctoral studies (1987-1990).

He attended specialist courses at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland (1991-1992) and later in 2004 at St. Stephen's College, Oxford, England.

In the 1990s and 2000s, he was an assistant, then a university lecturer at the "Dumitru Stăniloae" Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University in Iasi. He obtained his doctorate in theology from this university, with the thesis "Spirituality and history on the territory of Romania in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine era" (coord. prof. Dr. Emilian Popescu, 2003).

He held numerous courses and conferences at universities abroad:…