Father Petroniu Tănase, who spent his last 33 years of life at Prodromu Skete at Mount Athos, and the last 25 as abbot of this Romanian settlement at the Holy Mount depending on the Great Lavra Monastery, was buried today in the skete cemetery. His Grace Bishop Hrisostom celebrated the burial service in the big church of Prodromu Romanian skete according to the tradition of the Holy Mount Athos.

The Romanian Patriarchate was represented by a delegation headed by Rev. Archimandrite Timotei Aioanei, great ecleziarch of the Patriarchal Cathedral and cultural exarch of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, who declared for Trinitas Radio station: “The funeral service began at 14.15 hours and ended at 17.30 hours. The group of servant priests was made up of about fifty hieromonks, priests and deacons, run by His Grace Hrisostom, a hierarch resident at the Great Lavra Monastery, former head of the Athonite School of Theology of Athoniada. The group also included the priests representing His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel who have come to the Holy Mount especially for the funerals. (…) To end with the religious service, I presented the message that His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel sent to the community of Prodromu Skete and to all those who appreciated father protosingelos Petroniu Tănase. (…). Many Romanians who were on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos came to pray together with the monks from Prodromu and from the other Romanian monastic settlements spread all over Mount Athos, on this day when we hope his soul raised to the One whom he served constantly, with much piety, fear of God and love for all those whom he met.”

Father Protosingelos Petroniu Tănase passed away on 22 February 2011, aged 94. He was born in Fărcaşa locality, county of Neamţ; he joined the community of Neamţ Monastery, where he became a monk on 22 September 1942 – informs Trinitas TV channel. From Neamţ, he was called to Antim Monastery of Bucharest, where he continued his intellectual formation, graduating the Faculty of Orthodox Theology and attending courses of mathematics and philosophy. In 1947, he was ordained hieromonk for the Patriarchal Cathedral and then sent to be a teacher at the Monastic Seminary of Neamţ Monastery, for the chair of homiletics, catechetics and pedagogy. Further on, there followed a hard period for the missionary monk who suffered because of the totalitarian regime, having been obliged to leave Neamţ Monastery in 1959. It was with much courage and zeal for the Church Christ, our Saviour, and the same never ending love for the monastic life that he retired to the community of Sihăstria Monastery in 1964, where he lived till 1978, when he left for the Romanian Skete of Prodromu of the Holy Mount Athos, where the members of the community elected him abbot after seven years.