In His Own Words

When I took a trip to Albania earlier this year, I was blessed to visit the resting place of Abp. Anastasios, which is located directly under the altar of the Resurrection Cathedral in Tirana. 

On any given Sunday following the Divine Liturgy, the faithful head downstairs and gather in a single file line to venerate his tomb and ask for his holy prayers before they proceed to the fellowship hall. While I did attend the liturgy on a Sunday, I did not visit him until later in the week. This was partially due to the need to take photos and record footage for our work at UOJ, but I also found it to be providential. My final act before departing Tirana and driving around the country was asking the prayers of the man who rebuilt all we were about to see. This is something that I will always cherish.

Seemingly every temple that was either reconstructed or built from scratch following the fall of communism in Albania was consecrated by Abp. Anastasios himself. The number of plaques I saw with the date and his name is too many to count.

Anastasios’ mother was advised to abort him, but she prayed to Panagia to help her give birth to her frail son, who she was told she would be too ill to take care of. Anastasios would then live through the German and Italian occupation of Greece. His missionary endeavors in Africa and the adversity he faced there reveal a man who truly relied on God as his source of comfort, which was revealed even more so in the miraculous work he did resurrecting the Church of Albania. 

“For those who may be meeting Archbishop Anastasios for the first time through these pages, I believe you will encounter not only the words of a remarkable leader of our Church, but also the witness of a man whose life itself is a homily,” Fr. Stephanos Ritsi writes in his introduction. At only 129 pages, this book serves as a warm welcome to the life and work of His Beatitude.

As the preface states: 

“A distinctive feature of Anastasios’s Orthodoxy is living alongside others.” 

This simple practice has been made so complex by worries (often warranted) regarding ecumenism and how Orthodox Christians should generally act in the world. I propose the life of Abp. Anastasios as the proper answer to these questions.

Whether it be constructing a hospital which, on a month-to-month basis, served mostly Muslim and secular citizens, or standing in the street handing out basic necessities (even when the people hated and did not trust him) during times of turmoil, this was someone who took the Incarnation seriously, and who did all he could to actualize it for those who did not yet know Christ. He even kept the bullet from an assassination attempt lodged in his window as a reminder that his life could end at any moment.

And while it is wonderful to hear stories told by those who met various figures throughout Church history – and these stories are necessary – the way we primarily get to know the individual is by engaging with them in their own words. In this way, I find St. George Press’ latest release to be a success, and a fine addition to similar works based around Abp. Anastasios’ interviews like “In Albania: Cross and Resurrection,” published by SVS Press in 2016.

“Archbishop Anastasios of Albania: Serving Christ Throughout the World” contains dialogues with historian Roberto Morozzo della Rocca and Catholic priest Tommaso Opocher, and was translated to English from the original 2023 publication by the Church of Greece. After the typical series of pleasantries to start the book (acknowledgments, preface, introduction, biographical background), the text is split into eight chapters on these general topics: