With the blessing of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the request of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Metropolitan Sevastianos, paid a visit to the Diocese of Arad on Monday, July 27.

Together with Fr. John Bociu, Metropolitan Sevastianos was welcomed at the beautiful Archiepiscopal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, by His Eminence Timotei, Archbishop of Arad, accompanied by Protos. Dr. Iustin Popovici, diocesan vicar, Fr. Teodor Pavel, diocesan councilor and Arch. Ștefan-Adelin Rusu. 

The visit continued at the Hodoș-Bodrog Monastery, where His Eminence was greeted by Father Nicolae Tang, university lecturer at the Ilarion V. Felea School of Orthodox Theology  in Arad. Living in this monastery, Fr. Nicolae walked His Eminence through the history of this ancient Monastery, including its old Church, the iconography, the summer chapel & the episcopal crypt, the monastery museum, especially the Slavonic and Middle Bulgarian manuscripts, among its most significant copies from the Old Book Collection.

At the conclusion of the visit, Archbishop Timotei offered Metropolitan Sevastianos an icon of  the Holy Martyr Priest Ilarion Felea, newly canonized, protector of the Arad Archdiocese and of the Arad theological schools.

​This text was freely translated and adapted from the Romanian written by Arch. Ștefan-Adelin Rusu, which is available to read here.