Gurie Grosu

Gurie Grosu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈɡuri.e ˈɡrosu]; 1 January 1877 – 14 November 1943) was a Bessarabian priest and the first holder of the Basarabian Metropolitan Church after 100 years of Russian occupation.

When King Carol II paid a visit to Bessarabia in 1930, Metropolitan Gurie prevented him from entering the altar through the royal gates, telling him that a king can only do it with a crown on his head and with his wife Princess Elena of Greece, criticizing his extra-marital relations.

At the press of the king, on 11 November 1936, the Holy Synod, led by Patriarch Miron Cristea, suspended him not taking into account the letter sent by him.

He was the Prior at St. Abram Abbey in Smolensk (1909) and the director of the teacher-training school (normal schools) of the Gruševsk (1910-1914) and Samovka (1914-1917) and the professor of Romanian language in Chișinău (1917-1918) and the militant of Romanianism, as Deputy Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government of Chișinău.

On 1 January 1920 the Pontiff of Chisinau and Hotin, and on 21 February 1920, was elected as a full holder (enthroned in 1921), and from 28 April 1928 he became Metropolitan of Bessarabia, ministering by 11 November 1936, when he was retired.

Grosu (right)during a religious event în Nisporeni, 1930.