The Dumitru Stăniloae Metropolitan Library
The building that is mirroring the Metropolitan Chancery was chosen in 1995 to accommodate the readers of the Ecumenical Section of the Metropolitan Library. Founded on the initiative and through the efforts of His Eminence Metropolitan Daniel, the new establishment was consecrated on 1 July 1995 by His Beatitude Teoctist, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and was given the name of the greatest Romanian theologian of the 20th century, Father Dumitru Stăniloae. Below the portrait of the spiritual patron, in the main lobby of the library, one may read on a marble plaque the motivation for naming the library after the Romanian translator of the Philocalia, “who taught us to cultivate the heavenly seeds of Orthodoxy in Her ecumenical breadth”.
The Metropolitan Library is dedicated to being in service of preserving the patrimony and advancing the culture and the academia. The holdings of the library, which are continuously expanding, have benefited from numerous donations from Romania and abroad and from purchases of new books by the Metropolitanate, which allocates a significant amount of money to this end. The reading rooms are organized according to subject areas: Biblical Theology, Practical Theology, Systematic Theology, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, and Periodicals.
In addition to its Ecumenical Section, The Metropolitan Library has two more sections, to be found in neighboring buildings. The Historical Section, which holds the collections of manuscripts and old books and periodicals is accommodated on the lower ground floor of the Metropolitan Chancery. The Studium Section, at the Dumitru Stăniloae Faculty of Orthodox Theology, admits students and professors to access its academic books, periodicals and reference works for theological research. At present, the Metropolitan Library holds more than 100,000 books and other print materials.