site.btaBulgarian Patriarch Daniil Arrives in Tirana for Funeral of Albanian Archbishop Anastasios

Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil arrived in Tirana Thursday for the funeral of Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres and All Albania. The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is accompanied by the Metropolitan of Vratsa Gregory, the Bulgarian Patriarchate said on its website. A memorial service will be celebrated at the Cathedral of the Resurrection in the Albanian capital.

Other primates of autocephalous Orthodox churches are also expected to attend the funeral services and rites, including the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, Archbishop Georgios of New Justiniana and All Cyprus and Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. A liturgy will be celebrated by metropolitans, members of the Holy Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church, followed by the Rite of Burial of the late Archbishop Anastasios, to be conducted by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Upon arrival, Patriarch Daniil and Metropolitan Gregory offered a trisagion on behalf of the late archbishop before his remains reposing in the Resurrection Cathedral. A large number of believers who had come to pray for their primate filled the church.

The Bulgarian delegation to Tirana also met with Bulgarian Ambassador to Albania, Ivailo Kirov.

Born Anastasios Yannoulatos in Piraeus, Greece in 1929, Archbishop Anastasios took over the re-founded Autocephalous Church of Albania in 1992.  Serving as head of the church for almost 33 years to his last day, he built hundreds of churches and schools. “The indelible Archbishop Anastasios restored and renewed the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania, which he raised from its ruins following the fall of the atheistic regime,” the Church’s announcement about his death said. The long-serving head of Albania’s Orthodox Church, Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres and All Albania, “fell asleep in the Lord” on January 25 due to multiple organ failure, in a hospital in Athens. Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil cabled condolences on the death of the leader of the Albanian Orthodox Church. "With diligence and tireless labors he raised up and renewed your local Church, showing himself to be a divinely inspired helmsman and its caring father. His legacy as a brilliant ecclesiastic and indefatigable archpriest of the great Shepherd Christ will remain indelible not only for the Albanian Orthodox Church, but for all Orthodoxy,” said Patriarch Daniil in his message.