Naum (Ilievski)

Bishop Naum of Strumica (Наум Струмички; born Zvonko Ilievski) is the Metropolitan of the Diocese of Strumica, Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric.

Metropolitan Naum of Strumica was born on 13 December 1961 in Skopje.

The Holy Monastery of Gregoriou on Mount Athos was the place where he started his monastic struggle in May 1987.

There he was invested with the Great Schema in 1991 by Archimandrite George Kapsanis, Abbot of the Monastery Gregoriou.

ΑΓΙΟΣ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΣ Ο ΓΡΑΙΚΟΣ Ο ΦΩΤΙΣΤΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΡΩΣΩΝ (“Venerable Maximus the Greek – The Enlightener of Russia”), ΙΕΡΑ ΜΟΝΗ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΟΡΟΥΣ, 1991.

Three years later, in 1993, Metropolitan Alexios of Trikke of the Greek Orthodox Church ordained him into deaconate.

On August 15, 1995, Bishop Calinic of Arges and Muscel of the Romanian Orthodox Church ordained him a priest.

His consecration as Bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church took place on August 27, 1995.

The following day, August 28, the Holy Synod of Hierarchs of the Macedonian Orthodox Church enthroned him Bishop of the Strumica Diocese as Metropolitan of Strumica.

Metropolitan Naum graduated in Law at the “Ss.

Cyril and Methodius” University, in Skopje, and also graduated in Theology at the “St.

Clement of Ohrid” University, in Skopje.

In the year 2000, he received the award "Archbishop Gabriel" for the most successful translation in spiritual literature for the book "Hesychastic Testimonies", given by the Macedonian Association of Literary Translators.

He is an Honorary Member of the Macedonian Writers' Association.

So far, fifteen of his authorial books have been published, containing pastoral epistles, letters, homilies, interviews and ascetical-hesychastic essays, the titles of which are as follows:

Two of his books, "Neither Will I Tell You..."

and "Only One Thing is Needed" are translated in English and available on Amazon as kindle editions (e-books).

The book "Neither Will I Tell You..."

In 2008 he defended his PhD thesis at the Faculty of Theology at the “Saint Clement of Ohrid” University, in Sofia, Bulgaria, on the topic “Hesychasm in Athonite Monasticism of the 20th Century.” In 2015 he obtained a master's degree in clinical psychology at the International Slavic University “Gavrilo Romanovich Derzhavin”, in Sveti Nikole.

In 2010, he was appointed as an associate professor at the Faculty of Pedagogy at the “St.

Clement of Ohrid” State University, in Bitola.

Now, he is an associate professor at the International Slavic University “G.

R. Derzhavin” in Sveti Nikole, Republic of North Macedonia.

He is participating in the higher educational activity of the Faculty of Theology “St.

Clement of Ohrid”, in Skopje, for the subjects Comparative religion and Social politics and religion.

(2015) has been published in Romanian, and the books "Neither Will I Tell You..."

On September 17, 2018, he was elected Doctor honoris causa of the University “St.

Cyril and St. Methodius” in Veliko Trnovo, Bulgaria.

and "Overcoming the Dualism" (2018) are published in Bulgarian language.