Antonio De Rosso

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Antonio De Rosso is the current head of the Orthodox Church in Italy and the Metropolitan of Ravenna and Italy.

Metropolitan Antonio was born in 1941 in Farra di Soligo (near Treviso, Veneto) and in 1968 was ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church. Then he converted to Orthodoxy and in 1986 he became bishop of Aprilia and Latium under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili, a leader of Greek Old Calendarists movement. In 1991 he founded the Orthodox Church in Italy. In 1993 bishop Antonio joined Bulgarian Orthodox Church and in 1995 was enthroned bishop of Ravenna and Italy. After 1997 the Orthodox Church in Italy remained linked with Patriarch Pimen's Bulgarian Alternative Synod and bishop Antonio became Metropolitan of Ravenna and Italy. In the same year Metropolitan Antonio became a full member of Pimen's Holy Synod, as the head of the autonomous Orthodox Church in Italy.