Archbishop Anastasios, who revived the Orthodox Church in Albania, dies at 95 Albania's Archbishop Anastasios, who revived the country's Orthodox Church after the fall of the communist regime in 1990, has died, the church said on Saturday.
Anastasios, the Archbishop of Tirana, Durres, and All Albania and head of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, died in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Athens due to “polyorgan deficiency,” the church said.
“His Grace, Archbishop Anastasios, was the rebuilder and revitalizer of the Albanian Orthodox Church, which was literally raised from the ruins after the fall of the atheist regime,” the church said in a statement.
Born Anastasios Yannoulatos in Greece in 1929, he arrived in Albania in 1991, immediately after the fall of the communist regime that had ruled the country since the mid-1940s, to resuscitate the country’s Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
“He rebuilt church life from the ground up, built hundreds of churches, established educational and charitable institutions, and formed a new generation of clergy, providing unending and sacrificial service for more than 33 years.”.
