Right Rev. Ioachim Mareş, Bishop of Huşi, died on April 24, 2009, on the feast of the Lifegiving Font, at 1:30 p.m. at the Diocesan Residence in Huşi. Today, Monday, April 27, the Holy Liturgy will be celebrated at 8:00 a.m., followed, at 10 a.m., by the memorial service for Right Rev. Ioachim Mareş. Acting upon the wish of the late Bishop Ioachim, his body will be taken after the service to the Ascension of the Lord Cathedral in Bacău.

Here the faithful will be able to pay their respects to Bishop Ioachim Mareş until tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, 2009. Tomorrow, at 8 a.m., the Holy Liturgy will be celebrated, followed by the burial of Bishop Ioachim in the crypt found in the basement of the Ascension of the Lord Cathedral in Bacău.

Most Rev. Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, will be locum tenens of the see of Huşi until the election and enthronement of a new Bishop of Huşi.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel sent a message to the faithful of the Huşi Diocese, in which he underlined that “Most Rev. Ioachim of Huşi has passed away on the Bright Friday. Bearing the cross of the suffering of his longtime ailment with dignity and hope, God has called him to the Heavens on the feast day of the Lifegiving Font in order to show that the place of the complete healing is the Kingdom of God.'

Right Rev. Ioachim Mareş was born in Măgireşti, Bacău county, on March 12, 1927. He was ordained priest in 1972, ministering at the St. Nicholas Church in Bacău. In 1978 he was appointed administrative vicar of the Roman and Huşi Diocese. In 1985 he was ordained bishop and appointed Vicar Bishop of the Roman and Huşi Diocese. In 1996 he was elected Bishop of Huşi.