Calin Tamiian

Father Calin Tamiian died in the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at the Loyola Retreat House in Clinton, Ohio, where he had traveled with fellow priests and Bishop John Michael Botean for a retreat. He was 52. Nashville Catholic and parish tributes describe the cause as a sudden cardiac event; an earlier report had called it a sudden illness.

The Romanian Greek Catholic Eparchy of St. George announced his death and asked prayers for his wife, Sarah, and their children. A service was held on October 8, 2026, at St. George Byzantine Catholic Cathedral in Canton, Ohio, followed by a Pontifical Divine Liturgy, funeral service, and memorial meal on October 9. Father Michael Fye represented the Diocese of Nashville. A further Byzantine liturgical observance was planned for approximately forty days after his death, tentatively in Nashville.

Calin Liviu Tamiian was born on April 21, 1974, in Bistrita, Romania, the eldest son of Maria Ghita and Col. Grigore Tamiian. He grew up in Transylvania, spending time both in Baia Mare and on his family's farm near Ardusat and Bordlesti. His family was engaged in the fine art trade, and he developed an early love of music, poetry, art, and the outdoors, especially fishing and swimming.

At eighteen he recognized a vocation to the priesthood and entered seminary in Romania, with further theological studies in France and Austria. In 1996 he studied at the Language and Catechetical Institute of Franciscan University in Gaming, Austria, where he met Sarah Anne Wendell. He moved to the United States in 1997 to earn a master's degree in sacred theology through the University of Dallas at its satellite campus in Portland, Oregon, living near Sarah's family. The couple married in 1998 at St. Boniface Church in Sublimity, Oregon.

In 1999 the family moved to Canton, Ohio, where Tamiian was ordained a deacon and worked as secretary for Bishop John Michael Botean of the Romanian Greek Catholic Eparchy of St. George. He began clinical pastoral education at the Cleveland Clinic, earning a second master's degree in chaplaincy and becoming a nationally board-certified chaplain. He was ordained a priest on May 26, 2002, in Canton, the only Romanian Greek Catholic eparchy outside Romania.

Shortly afterward he moved his family to Los Angeles to serve St. Mary's Romanian Catholic Church while continuing chaplaincy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He later served St. John's Hospitals in Oxnard and Camarillo, California, and lectured on clinical pastoral education at St. John's Seminary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He became a United States citizen in 2014.

In July 2020 the family moved to Nashville, where he began as director of spiritual care for Ascension Saint Thomas during the COVID-19 pandemic and later became system director for Spiritual Care and Clinical Pastoral Education. With Diocese of Nashville support, he founded the Blessed Martyr Bishops Byzantine Catholic Mission, which began using facilities at the Catholic Church of the Korean Martyrs in Donelson on January 6, 2023. He provided the only Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy in Middle Tennessee and performed dozens of baptisms and chrismations. His personal motto, "Our faith is our life," became a watchword for the community.

As an Eastern Rite Catholic priest in full communion with Rome, Tamiian was permitted to marry. He and Sarah Anne Wendell raised four children: Sanziana, Magdalena, Alexandru, and Zamfira. He held faculties for both Eastern and Roman Catholic rites. Colleagues remembered his appreciation for art and beauty, his humor, and his steady companionship through the hardships of the pandemic years. He was preceded in death by his mother, Maria Ghita Tamiian; a son, John Paul; his mother-in-law, Carolyn Wendell; and his grandparents.

Tamiian left a lasting mark on both hospital chaplaincy and the small Eastern Catholic community he built in Nashville. Greg Pope of the Diocese of Nashville remembered him as a kind and gentle shepherd who served his family, the Byzantine Catholic mission, and countless patients and healthcare workers with humility. His example of faith, compassion, and service continues to guide those who knew him. The Blessed Martyr Bishops Byzantine Catholic Mission remains his principal pastoral legacy in Middle Tennessee.