, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Draguignan

Draguignan

Draguignan is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Artillery" and "Porte du Verdon".The city is only from St...

 and Auvergne

Auvergne (région)

Auvergne is one of the 27 administrative regions of France. It comprises the 4 departments of Allier, Puy de Dome, Cantal and Haute Loire.The current administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not...

, before settling for good in Viels-Maisons, a village on the Marne River

Marne River

The Marne is a river in France, a right tributary of the Seine in the area east and southeast of Paris. It is long. The river gave its name to the départements of Haute-Marne, Marne, Seine-et-Marne, and Val-de-Marne....

 96 km east of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. At one point during these travels, self-proclaimed Iron Guard

Iron Guard

The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...

 leader Horia Sima

Horia Sima

Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...

 offered Puiu the post of Minister of Religious Affairs in his government in exile, but the latter declined.

From 1948 to 1958 Puiu headed the Romanian Orthodox Church in France. Still a bishop, his church was subordinated to the ROCOR

Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia , also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA, or ROCOR) is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church....

 Metropolitan in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and he used the Romanian Orthodox parish in Paris (established in the 19th century) as his cathedral. On 28 February 1950, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Bucharest, headed by Patriarch Justinian Marina

Justinian Marina

Justinian Marina was a Romanian Orthodox prelate...

 and under pressure from the Communist

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

 authorities, deposed Puiu from his ecclesiastical position; he was rehabilitated on 25 September 1990. Among the reasons cited for this action was an allegedly pro-Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 1925 article he had written; for this, he was branded an "imperialist agent".

As of 1 April 1958, Puiu disbanded the Paris Archdiocese he had established a decade earlier. There were three main reasons for this action. First, its goal of uniting all Romanian Orthodox believers in Western Europe completely failed, as it never had more than one parish. Second, the church faced a constant clergy and financial shortfall. Third, its subordination to ROCOR isolated it within the wider Orthodox world. On top of all this, the church was riven by the political factionalism that marked the Romanian exile community. Thus, the church was returned to the priests who had led it before Puiu's arrival, and the bishop retired to Viels-Maisons, where he died six years later. He was buried in that village but later moved to Montparnasse Cemetery

Montparnasse Cemetery

Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the city's 14th arrondissement.-History:Created from three farms in 1824, the cemetery at Montparnasse was originally known as Le Cimetière du Sud. Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the closure, owing to...

, where he lies today.

Offices held

• Bishop of Argeş (elected 17 March 1921, consecrated 25 March, enthroned 27 March - served until 1923)
• Bishop of Hotin (seat at Bălţi) (elected 29 March 1923, enthroned 13 May - served until 1935)
• Metropolitan of Bukovina (elected 17 October 1935, enthroned 10 November - served until May 1940)
• Metropolitan of Transnistria (16 November 1942 - 14 December 1943)
• Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Western Europe (1948 - 1 April 1958)

External links

Romanian Metropolitan Visarion Puiu, by Protohierarch Sorin Petcu, Müllheim

Müllheim

Müllheim is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It belongs to the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. Müllheim is generally considered to be the center of the region known as Markgräflerland.-History:...

, July 2006 Visarion Puiu in the Dictionary of Romanian Theologians Statement regarding Puiu of 11 March 2003 in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies by Member of Parliament Pavel Târpescu