Petroniu Tănase

Saint Petroniu the Prodromite (born Petru Tănase, 1914 or 1916 to 22 February 2011) was a Romanian monk, protosyngellos or hieroschemamonk, a great spiritual father of the twentieth century and abbot of the Romanian Prodromou Skete on Mount Athos. He was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at its session of 30 to 31 August 2025; the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church entered him in its calendar at its session of 29 to 30 September 2025, and according to one of the sources Patriarch Bartholomew signed the solemn act of canonization, with commemoration on 24 February, on 29 August 2026. He is commemorated on 24 February.

Youth

The sources do not agree on the year of his birth: the Romanian source gives 1914, the Russian one 23 May 1916. He was born at Farcașa, in Neamț county, into a peasant family. The Romanian source says he became a monk young in the community of the Neamț Monastery, where he was formed spiritually; the Russian one says he was tonsured in 1940 at the Sihăstria monastery. He then moved to Bucharest, into the community of the Antim monastery, graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology and followed, in parallel, courses in mathematics and philosophy. In 1937 his obedience was to put the monastery library of Antim in order. In the years of the Second World War and until 1947 he was an official at the Chancery of the Holy Synod and at the secretariat of Patriarch Nicodim. In 1947, according to the Russian source, he was ordained hieromonk and sent as teacher of homiletics and catechism to the seminary at Neamț Monastery. He belonged to the "Burning Bush" group and suffered the consequences of that membership: in 1959, under pressure from the communist authorities, he had to leave the monastery and was persecuted several times for his faith; in the years 1964 to 1969 he lived under house arrest, without the right to serve.

On the Holy Mountain

In 1977 and 1978, at the request of the Romanian monks of the Holy Mountain, the Romanian Patriarchate sent two groups of monks to strengthen Prodromou skete and revive its monastic life. Father Petroniu was part of the second wave, in 1978, and since then lived without interruption on Athos. From 1984 he was elected abbot, and at the beginning of 2011 he gave up the abbacy because of age. During his abbacy great works of restoration were done: the katholikon was painted and a new guesthouse built, a road linking the skete with the Great Lavra was opened. In his time also took place the glorification of Saint Anthony of Valaam, tonsured at Prodromou, first in the Russian and then in the Romanian Church. In May 1998 Archimandrite Pankratios, abbot of the Valaam monastery, gave, at his request, a particle of the relics of Saint Anthony to the monastery from which he had gone out. One of his last works was the bringing to Russia of a copy of the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God "Prodromitissa" (Self-⁠Painted), in June 2010, at the three-⁠hundredth anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo and the consecration of the cathedral of Saint Catherine.

Repose and writings

He passed to the Lord on 22 February 2011 and was buried according to the Athonite tradition on 24 February, in the small cemetery of Prodromou skete; the service was served by Bishop Chrysostomos of Rodostolon, with over thirty hieromonks, and representatives of the Patriarch of Romania and of the authorities came. He was known as a deep man of prayer and of great humility. Not only Romanians but other Athonite monks and pilgrims of various nations came to him for counsel; twice he was proposed as Patriarch of Romania, but refused each time. He wrote articles, interviews and books: "The Doors of Repentance" (1994, translated into several European languages), "Humble Icons of Romanian Orthodoxy" (2002), "Blessed Art Thou, O Lord" (2004), "The Call of Holy Orthodoxy" (2006).