Saturday, June 09, 2007

Fr. Elia Wen, Memory Eternal





From Orthodox.cn, slightly modified.

Protopresbyter Elias ( Wén Zǐzhèng in Chinese) was a priest under the Archbishop of Shanghai, St John the Wonderworker. He became rector of the Cathedral there in 1946 but have fled to Hong Kong when the Communists took power in 1949.

Fr Elias was the oldest living Orthodox priest, who turned 110 on November 19th, 2006. He had been living in San Francisco with his son Michael, an active member of the parish council at the Holy Virgin Cathedral on Geary Blvd.

Memory eternal for the servant of God Protopresbyter Elias Wen who has fallen asleep in the Lord shortly before 3PM PDT on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at age of 110 years old. The first panikhida will be held Sunday night.