top of page
Diocesan bishop.jpg

Our Diocesan Bishop

The Most Reverend Athanasius of Bogdania, Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

    The Most Reverend Athanasius of Bogdania, Vicar Bishop of the Diocese of Italy, was elected on Friday 25 October 2024 to the dignity of the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The newly elected Archbishop of Great Britain is 42 years old and has been a bishop of the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church since May 2018.

     

    He was born on 17 January 1982 in Chisinau in the Republic of Moldova, being the first of the two sons of Eugen and Ala Rusnac. He has held Romanian citizenship since 12 October 2010.

     

    He was tonsured monk on 8 December 2008, receiving the name Dionysius on 17 January 2009 he was ordained deacon. On 16 April 2009 he became a priest for the chapel of the Diocesan Centre and the Dormition Monastery in Rome. Between 2009 and 2018 he served at the ‘Dormition of the Virgin Mary’ Chapel next to the Diocesan Centre in Rome.

     

    On 15 February 15 2018, he was elected Vicar Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy, with the title of Bogdania , and on 1 May he received episcopal ordination.

     

    Archbishop Athanasius was an engineer. He studied between 2000 and 2005 at INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliqués de Lyon – France). He obtained the degree of Engineer with a Master's degree, his speciality - Telecommunications and Networks. He also followed a specialisation internship in the field of IT (MT Systems – Lyon, France).

     

    Between 2006 and 2010, he attended the ‘Saint-Serge’ Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Paris. He obtained his bachelor's degree in pastoral theology in 2010. Between 2010 and 2012, he attended a Master's course in Practical Theology (Canon Law), at the Faculty of Theology ‘Andrei Șaguna’ in Sibiu. Master's thesis – ‘Principles of Canon Theology in the Diaspora, with special reference to Italy’.

     

    The Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as the Diocese of Ireland and Iceland, were established on 29 February 2024. The new dioceses are part of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of Western and Southern Europe.

     

    There are over a million Romanians living in Great Britain who currently have 100 parishes, branches and Orthodox missions, as well as three monasteries.

    bottom of page