At the age of 90, the Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuți has died. He was diagnosed with coronavirus immediately after Easter. The hierarch began to feel unwell on April 16, but his condition worsened on Monday, April 20, on the second day of Easter. He arrived at the hospital in Suceava in a state of emergency, weak and with a fever. The result of the coronavirus test was positive, and he was transported by a SMURD helicopter to the “Matei Balş” Institute in Bucharest. As a result of pulmonary complications, he was later incubated.
The archbishop was placed in intensive care, where he received a plasma treatment from a recovered patient. His Holiness Pimen, Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti, died on Wednesday, the 20th of May at 0:50 a.m at the “Matei Balș” Institute in Bucharest.
His Holiness Father Pimen was born on August 25, 1929, in Greabănu, Buzău County. At baptism, he received the name Vasile. During the last decades he was a professor, chief abbot, parson and museum curator and also represented the Romanian Patriarchy in Jerusalem; he served as exarch, bishop and then archbishop of the Orthodox Church.
Vasile Bănescu, spokesman of the Romanian Patriarchy announced, that His Holiness Father Pimen will be buried at Putna Cloister in Suceava in a sealed coffin, according to the legislation in force for people who have died and had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
“The Orthodox Church has lost today a dignified hierarch, one that was the Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuţi in the last 29 years and whose name together with other ancestors will always be connected to the protection of the splendid monasteries of Bucovina.
The thought, that he often confessed has a special reverberation today: For this I became a priest. To learn how to die every day. Every day we are preparing for the great meeting with Him.” – the spokesman added.
According to the National Institute of Public Health, on Wednesday morning the death toll due to SARS-Cov2 in Romania stood at 1,140.
Featured photo: His Holiness Pimen, Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti, Photo: Universul.net
