Petru

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

• He was born on 24 October 1946, son of Chiril and Ana Păduraru, in Țiganca commune, Cantemir district (former Cahul county), Republic of Moldova. He was baptized Ion.

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Attends secondary school in Țiganca commune, Cahul county, Republic of Moldova;
• is a student at “Ion Creangă” Vocational School in Cahul, Republic of Moldova;
• 1964-1966 – fulfils military service;
• 1967 – begins studies at the Theological Seminary “St. Apostle Andrew” in Odessa (Ukraine);
• 1968 – enters the Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in Odessa (Ukraine);
• 29 March 1969 – he becomes a monk, the liturgical service being conducted by His Eminence Sergy Petrov, Metropolitan of Odessa and Herson;
• 29 December 1970 – ordained hieromonk in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Odessa by His Grace Meliton, Rector of the Seminary and Theological Academy of Leningrad/St. Petersburg (Russia);
• 23 February 1973 – ordained a hieromonk in the Episcopal Cathedral of Uzhgorod by His Eminence Gregory Zachaleach, Archbishop of Muncach and Uzhgorod;
• 1973-1975 – serves as a parish priest in the following Romanian villages: Apșa de Mijloc, Apșa de Jos and Valea Scradei, Transcarpathian region (Ukraine);
• 1975 – transferred to the Monastery of the Ascension of the Lord in Ciumalevo (Ukraine);
• 1986 – elevated to the rank of hegumen by His Eminence Archbishop Gregory Zachaleach, Archbishop of Muncach and Ujgorod;
• 3 December 1989 – ordained as an archimandrite and returns to Bessarabia as a priest at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Chișinău;
• 25 May 1990 – appointed abbot at the Monastery of St. Great Martyr George – Capriana (Bessarabia);
• 20 July 1990 – elected and appointed bishop of Bălți, being ordained on 1 September 1990 in the Nativity Cathedral in Chișinău by His Beatitude Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, together with a group of hierarchs from Russia and Romania (His Eminence Daniel, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bucovina);
• 14 September 1992 – He is elected as Locum tenens of the Metropolitan of Bessarabia, with residence in Chișinău, at the Diocesan Assembly for the Establishment of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, recognized by the Romanian Patriarchate on 19 December 1992 by the Patriarchal and Synodal Act on the Recognition of the Reactivation of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, autonomous and old-style, with residence in Chișinău;
• 21 September 1992 – he was received into communion with the Romanian Orthodox Church, and was appointed Locum tenens Metropolitan of Bessarabia, becoming a member of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on 19 December 1992;
• 3 October 1995 – was elected Metropolitan of Bessarabia by the Diocesan Assembly of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, being confirmed as Metropolitan by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on 24 October 1995, being granted the title of Archbishop of Chișinău, Metropolitan of Bessarabia and Exarch of Plaiuri (Plains) and the right of extraterritorial jurisdiction over the Orthodox Romanians of the Eastern Diaspora;
• 1998 – Graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “St. Martyr Filoteia” in Pitești.