Romanian Orthodox Religious Leader. He is remembered as the longtime head of the Romanian Orthodox Church who shepherded his flock during the transition from Communism to a democratic government. Born Toader Arapasu in Tocileni he was initially educated in local schools, in 1928 entered the Sihastria Voroni Hermitage as a novice, became a monk in 1935, then in 1940 commenced his theological studies at the University of Bucharest. Ordained a hieromonk (priest) on March 25, 1945, he was named an archmandrite, a high-level abbot, in 1946 but in 1947 was to see the latter designation revoked due to the first of several accusations of collaboration with the Communists that he was to face over the years. In 1950 he became bishop-vicar and secretary to Patriarch Justinian and between 1950 and 1954 served as rector of the Theological Institute of Bucharest. Appointed Bishop of Arad in 1962 he was named to head the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States in 1963 but was denied an entrance visa when old allegations surfaced. Bishop Arapasu was to hold a series of positions of increasing responsibility and was Metropolitan of Moldavia and Suceava when he was elevated to Patriarch in 1986. A member of the Romanian Parliament between 1975 and 1989, he was never able to dispel the rumors that he was too close with the Communist powers. When the Ceausescu regime fell in December of 1989 the Patriarch immediately resigned and took refuge in the Sinaia Monastery but in April 1990 found himself called back to office by the Holy Synod, a move that led to mixed feelings in Romania. For the remainder of his life Teoctist was to promote Christian unity and religious education and in 1999 was to host Pope John Paul II for the first visit of a Roman Pontiff to an Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism of 1054. Old charges were occasionally recycled including his 1981 sponsorship of a soccer team with Church money, though there was evidence that many of the accusations were invented by the KGB in order to discredit the Romanian Church. The Patriarch died of cardiac complications after prostate surgery.