Hiero-monk Petros Vryzas has been elected as the new abbot of the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, near Essex, in England.
Fr. Petros was a student of the Elder Zacharias Zacharou, who himself was a student of the late Archimandrite Elder Sophrony, the monastery’s abbot until he reposed in 1993.
The Monastery of St John the Baptist was founded in 1958 by the Elder Sophrony, who was the disciple and biographer of St Silouan the Athonite and compiler of St Silouan’s works. The specific monastery is the oldest Orthodox monastic community in the UK.