Sofian Boghiu

Sofian Boghiu (born Serghei Boghiu; 7 October 1912 – 14 September 2002) was a Romanian Orthodox hieromonk, church painter, confessor and spiritual father associated above all with Antim Monastery in Bucharest. Formed in the hesychast circle known as the “Burning Bush” (Romanian: Rugul Aprins), he was arrested by the communist authorities in 1958 and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which he served about six years in prisons and labor camps.

After his release he returned to Antim Monastery, where he served as abbot and spiritual father, became widely sought as a confessor, and carried out iconography projects in Romania, Lebanon and Syria. He was known in Romanian church literature under the sobriquet “Apostle of Bucharest” (Romanian: Apostolul Bucureștilor) on account of his long pastoral activity in the capital.

In July 2024 the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to inscribe him among the saints, assigning his feast day to 16 September. The general proclamation of his canonization took place in Bucharest in February 2025, with a local proclamation at Antim Monastery in September 2025. According to the Basilica News Agency he is regarded within the Romanian Orthodox Church as the first canonized Orthodox saint to have lived into the 21st century.

He was tonsured a monk on 25 December 1937 at Dobrușa Monastery, receiving the name Sofian, ordained hierodeacon in 1939 at Bălți and hieromonk in 1945 for Antim Monastery in Bucharest. The movement, initiated by the monk and writer Sandu Tudor, included figures such as Dumitru Stăniloae, Roman Braga, Arsenie Papacioc and other future confessors of the Romanian Church.

In the 2020s several works by and about him began to appear in other languages. In 2025 St. George Press in the United States published Daily Readings in the Tradition of the Philokalia, a collection of brief sayings from Sofian translated into English, and a companion volume of homilies was announced by the same press.

Canonization Sofian died on 14 September 2002 at Antim Monastery and was buried at Căldărușani Monastery in Gruiu, Ilfov County, where he had chosen his burial place in advance. The exhumation service was conducted by Assistant Bishop Timotei of Prahova, after which the relics were placed in the cemetery church at Căldărușani and later transferred for veneration at Antim Monastery in Bucharest.

The general proclamation of the canonization of Sofian and the other new saints took place on 4 February 2025 at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest, during celebrations marking the centenary of the Romanian Patriarchate.

Legacy Within Romanian Orthodoxy Sofian is remembered as one of the principal monastic confessors formed by the Burning Bush movement and as a representative of the neo-Byzantine iconographic revival in the 20th century. His life—marked by early monastic commitment, artistic work, imprisonment under the communist regime and later pastoral service in Bucharest—has been the subject of biographies, documentary films and local conferences organised at Antim Monastery and elsewhere. The publication of his homilies and short sayings in Romanian and other languages has further contributed to his reception as a spiritual author within contemporary Orthodox literature.