His Eminence, Bishop Michael of Nora
We
received news this morning, September 1 (September 14, New Style), from
the Convent of the Holy Angels in Aphidnai (Athens), Greece, of the
repose of our Holy Synod’s representative in Sardinia (Italy), His
Eminence, the Most Reverend Michael, Bishop of Nora. He died yesterday,
August 31, 2016 (Old Style), the Feast of the Deposition of the Precious
Cincture of the
Theotokos, to whom he was particularly
devoted, at 83 years of age and after an extended illness. His body is
being flown today to Greece, where he will be buried at the Holy
Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina, in Phyle.
Born
Michele Piredda, His Eminence was born in 1933 in Cagliari, Sardinia,
into a family of pious Roman Catholics. One of nine children, he became a
Roman Catholic monk and, in the course of his studies, discovered
Orthodoxy, which, as he once told His Eminence, Bishop Auxentios of Etna
and Portland, he found to be the purest form of Christianity and the
traditional religion of his ancestors on the island on Sardinia, prior
to the Great Schism of the Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West in
the mid-eleventh century. He converted to Orthodoxy in 1966. He was
eventually ordained a Deacon (1983), Priest (1984), and, as an auxiliary
to Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Phyle (1995), a Bishop at the
monastery in Phyle.
Bishop
Michael established a small but vibrant diocese in Cagliari. He several
times visited our monastery in Etna, including a visit that coincided
with the Glorification of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, for
whom he had a profound veneration. His Eminence had close ties to our
monastery. Since he spoke, like many older Sardinians, some Catalan,
Metropolitan Chrysostomos, who has both Greek and Catalan roots, was
able to communicate with and translate for him during his visits. Our
communities here in Etna, therefore, feel especially deeply the loss of
this humble and remarkably dedicated servant of the Church.
We
would be remiss not to mention Bishop Michael’s abiding, unswerving,
loving, and inspiring devotion to his spiritual Father, Metropolitan
Cyprian of Oropos and Phyle, whom he considered a truly genuinely holy
man. It is partly because of his devotion to Metropolitan Cyprian and
the monastery of his repentance in Phyle that his wish was to be buried
in Greece, so as to be near his Abba and spiritual guide, a wish that
will now be realized.
We extend condolences to His Eminence's spiritual children in Sardinia.
Αἰωνία ἡ μνήμη! Memoria Eterna! May his memory be eternal!
The Fathers,
St. Gregory Palamas Monastery
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