On Saturday, January 25, 2025, the Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania, Anastasios died in the Lord at the age of 95.

Archbishop Anastasios worked as a missionary for more than 70 years in Greece, Africa, and Albania.

He had visited Korea in 1973 and since then he never forgot the Orthodox Church of Korea. In particular, since 1975, when his close friend the late Metropolitan Soterios of Pisidia and previously of Korea, with whom he had been friends since their student days, came to Korea as a missionary, he assisted the missionary work of the Church in Korea in many different ways attending its various needs and difficulties.

As a sign of deep respect and gratitude toward His Beatitude the late Archbishop Anastasios, we held a memorial service in all the parishes of the Orthodox Metropolis of Korea, as well as at the Monastery of the Transfiguration,  on Sunday 26 January to commemorate the repose of his soul.

The following text of the late Archbishop Anastasios is indicative of his deep faith in the ecumenical nature of Orthodoxy and the necessity of spreading the Orthodox witness “to all nations”:    

«My firm conviction, which I have often repeated in the last decades, is that: the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”, to which we belong, does not live exclusively for itself. Whatever it is, whatever it possesses, whatever it offers, is intended for the whole of humanity, for the uplifting and renewal of the world”.

“That is why the Church must always be alert, vigilant, watchful of the course and developments of the world; she should study the signs of the times, so that she may be able to bear witness to the Gospel and share with all men the gifts of God, which are no other than the truth, love, peace, justice, righteousness, reconciliation, the experience of the Cross and the Resurrection with the expectation of eternity.»

May the memory of the blessed Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Durres, and All Albania, be eternal!