OUR CHURCH

Saint Mary Orthodox Church

Is a canonical Church under the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, with the blessing of his Eminence Archbishop and Metropolitan Nicolae. The first Liturgy was held by Fr. Iulian Anitei on September 8th 2002 in Austin. Then on September 16th, the Church was incorporated in the State of Texa. On April 15th, 2003 the Church was recognized by the Federal Government as a non-profit Organization, opened under article 501 (c) 3 from the IRS code.

The first Parish Council was found by Fr. Iulian Anitei with Dan Stiurca, Cristian Tiu, Aurelian Dumitru and Octavian Herescu. From 2002 until today, our Church had 5 priests: Fr. Iulian Anitei, Fr.Vichentie Punguta, Fr. Florin Craioveanu, Fr. Dumitru Ilies and Fr. Gabriel Ilies (today).

In 2010, represented by Father Dumitru Ilies, President Stefan Dumitreasa and Octavian Herescu, the Church purchased the property at 200 Monaco Drive, Cedar Park, TX 78613 with the clear objective to build a new church for this Community.

The Church is formed by ~40 families and our main objective is to help all brothers and sisters stepping in, to receive the right spiritual “medication”. The Divine Services are held in English and Romanian and the Sunday School in English. After each Divine Liturgy, our tradition is to have lunch together, as a big family. Today, our desire is to start a new church building for us and for all the other generations that will follow after us. Our Priest, Fr. Gabriel-Teofil Ilies, was born in Romania on October 31st, 1988. He attended the Orthodox Seminary School “Venianim Costachi from Neamt Monastery” 2003 – 2008. From 2008 to 2012 he attended “Fr Dumitru Orthodox University Staniloae” in Iasi. In 2013 he moved to the US and on March 1st 2020 was ordained as Deacon of the Church. Later on February 26th 2022 he was ordained as Priest for Saint Mary Romanian Orthodox Church. He has been married to Ana-Ioana Ilies since 2012 and they have two children together: Timotei and Elena. The President of our Parish Council and one of the founders of our Church is Mirela Glass.

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