Historical Visit to Dumbrava Monastery

Romanian Church

On 31 October 2011, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, together with His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, visited the Monastery of “Saint Dimitrios, the Myrrh Bearer” in Dumbrava locality, county of Alba. The Metropolitan of Patras and other hierarchs of the Romanian Orthodox Church were also present. The guests were met by a group of children from the social centre of the Monastery. A new block of rooms for the aged persons and orphan children of the county was opened here.

Then, the two Primates blessed the dentist’s consulting room of the centre of Dumbrava Monastery, as well as the rooms of the new building erected in the precincts, which will provide shelter to the aged persons.

On this occasion, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said: “This relationship between prayer and action, between the love for God expressed in prayer and love for one’s fellow beings expressed in good deeds has developed a lot. We have over 500 philanthropic centres in the Romanian Patriarchate, especially in the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia. His Eminence Andrei intensely developed this cooperation between the people of the Church and the county authority in order to take care of the children, sick, old ones, a thing badly needed since we have so much sufferance.”

“Your Beatitude, we congratulate you once again for this achievement of the Church of Romania. We also congratulate the father confessor who is here and who comforts and strengthen, with the blessing of the hierarch, both the employees and the assisted ones. Because the monastery is surrounded by several villages, the faithful from the neighbouring villages are very likely to come here to relax spiritually and pray for good health. May the example of this monastery be taken into account by many other monasteries not only from Romania, but also from the other Orthodox Churches”, said His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II.

The centre of Dumbrava Monastery provides shelter to 80 children and aged persons. At the same time, 100 other persons with low income benefit here of a warm meal every day.

The employees of “Luna” Military Airport prayed the Holy Head of Saint Andrew the Apostle before the departure of the official delegation.

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