Antonio De Rosso

Antonio De Rosso (Farra di Soligo, 8 February 1941 – Aprilia, Lazio, 20 February 2009) was an Italian priest and Christian leader who successively belonged to various Christian denominations. After initial priestly service in the Catholic Church, he changed several affiliations (in the cadre of the Old Catholicism). Eventually, he became Eastern Orthodox bishop, founder of the Orthodox Church in Italy (1991), Metropolitan of Ravenna and Italy (1997–2009), and Archbishop of L'Aquila (2009).

He was associated with various independent noncanonical Christian jurisdictions. The main goal of his religious activity was to create a national church in Italy.

Biography He was born in 1941 in Farra di Soligo (near Treviso, Veneto), in a Roman Catholic family. In 1968, he was ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vittorio Veneto, by Bishop Albino Luciani, who later became Pope John Paul I (1978). By 1983, he had left the Catholic Church, associating himself in succession with several Christian denominations linked the Old Catholicism. Eventually, after founding the Old Catholic Church in Italy, he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, entering into communion with the Old Calendarist movement. In 1986, he became bishop of Aprilia and Latium, under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Kyprianos Koutsoumpas of Oropos and Fili, leader of the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church of Greece (Holy Synod in Resistance).