The head of the Orthodox Church of Albania, Archbishop Anastasios, has been airlifted to a hospital in Athens, the Greek defence ministry said as the charismatic 95-year-old religious leader battled a virus.
Anastasios, who is known for reviving the Orthodox Church in Muslim-majority Albania, was hospitalised in Tirana, the Albanian capital, on Monday with what Church officials called a “seasonal virus”.
He was airlifted to Athens on a C-27 Greek air force plane “following a request from Greek emergency services”, the defence ministry said in a statement.
The archbishop, the leader of Albanian Orthodoxy for more than three decades, has regularly received medical care in the Greek capital as he ages.
In November 2020, he was hospitalised there for 12 days with Covid-19, also after being transported on a Greek military flight.
Source: AFP
