During the course of the years 1994, 1995 and 1996, he also performed spiritual formation in the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Maldon, England, in the United Kingdom.

In 1995, he was sent to the Hodoș-Bodrog Monastery, and during the fast of the Dormition of the Mother of God of the same year, Drincec was ordained as a monk and given the name "Sofronie" for the office.

[1] On 15 December 1998, he was appointed as the main candidate to fill the vacant position of bishop of the Diocese of Gyula.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church would grant him the title of bishop on 4 February 1999 and the Patriarch of All Romania Teoctist Arăpașu made him archimandrite three days later.

Finally, on 21 February, the ordination and installation ceremonies of Drincec as the first bishop of the Diocese of Gyula, in Hungary, took place.