Sophian of Antim

Venerable Confessor Sophian of Antim (1912-2002), an archimandrite, was a spiritual father at Antim Monastery in Bucharest, a church painter, a member of the “Burning Bush” movement and a political prisoner in 1958-1964. He was called “the Spiritual Father of Bucharest” and “the Apostle of Bucharest”.

He was born Serghei Boghiu on 7 October 1912 in the village of Cuconeștii Vechi in Bălți County, Bessarabia, the third of six children in a peasant family. At fourteen he entered the community of Rughi Skete near Soroca. He learned church chant at Dobrușa, then attended the monastic seminary at Cernica. He was tonsured a monk at Dobrușa on 25 December 1937, with the name Sophian. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest. Formed in the hesychast circle of the “Burning Bush”, he was arrested in 1958 and sentenced to fifteen years, of which he served about six in prisons and labour camps. After his release he returned to Antim, where he was abbot and a much sought confessor, and worked as an icon painter in Romania, Lebanon and Syria. He passed to the Lord on 14 September 2002 at Antim Monastery.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church decided in July 2024 on his canonization, with commemoration on 16 September (new style). He is regarded as the first canonized saint of Orthodoxy who lived in the twenty-⁠first century.