Anastasios Giannoulatos (Albanian: Anastas Janullatos; Greek: Αναστάσιος Γιαννουλάτος), Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, is the Head of the Holy Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Durrës (Italian: Durazzo; see also different names) is the most ancient and one of the most economically important important cities of Albania. ... The Albanian Orthodox Church has had a difficult time reestablishing its life after the enforced atheism imposed in communist-ruled Albania in 1967. ...
Born Anastasios Yannoulatos in Piraeus, Greece, in 1929, ArchbishopAnastasios devoted himself to Orthodox Christianity as a teenager.
Anastasios took responsibility for rebuilding Albania’s Orthodox Church at a time when the nation, which is the poorest in Europe, was just emerging from four and a half decades of international isolation imposed by a xenophobic communist dictatorship.
ArchbishopAnastasios has been a missionary from one war-ridden area of the world to another, and he exemplifies the Christian principle of bearing the sorrows and sharing the joys of people different from oneself.
Albania was the only country in the world to ban personal religious beliefs.
Appointed to head the newly-revived Church by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1991 was a Greek, Metropolitan Anastasios (Yannoulatos).
Though at first seen by the Albanian state as a possibly dangerous Greek nationalist, Anastasios has gained respect for his charity work and now is recognised as a spiritual leader of the Albanian society by citizens of all religions, dogmas and ethnic origins.