Dedication Day of the Romanian Saints’ Monastery

On 7 July 2013, hundreds of faithful of Bucharest attended the celebration of the dedication day of the Monastery of the Romanian Saints’ Sunday of Bucharest.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by the Romanian Orthodox Bishop for Northern Europe, His Grace Macarie, in the church of the monastic settlement at the Southern edge of the city.

The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was also present at the Divine Liturgy. On this occasion, His Beatitude delivered a sermon in which he explained why we celebrate all the Romanian Saints on this Sunday: “Because several Churches wanted to emphasise the saints of their nation after All Saints’ Sunday, so did the Romanian Orthodox Church decide through the Holy Synod that the 2nd Sunday after the Pentecost or the first Sunday after All Saints’ Sunday should be named the Romanian Saints’ Sunday. Although recent, this feast has become very popular. Several churches of our country, both monasteries and parish churches wanted to have this feast as the first, second or third dedication day. This fact strengthens the Romanian communion and the conscience that we are a people slowly but deeply Christianised, while we were forming ourselves as a new people in the history.”

The Romanians have not lost their faith under the pressure of the migratory populations who passed over this part of the world, but they kept it through sacrifices, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel also said.

In this context, the Patriarch of Romania pointed out the recent publication of the Akathistos of all the Romanian Saints, known and unknown, at the publishing house of the Bible and Orthodox Mission Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church: “The Akathistos of the Romanian Saints is one of the most beautiful ones that has ever been published in Romania because it speaks about the history of the holiness of the Romanian people in a rather concrete way. The Romanian saints remembered here are mentioned not only generally, but also on hosts, groups, every host comprising the respective saints by name as a prayer addressed to them. This akathistos is global and it refers both to the saints known by name with one celebration day in the calendar and to the many saints that we do not know.

To end with the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered the community of the monastery several books recently published at the publishing houses of the Romanian Patriarchate. The faithful present have also received small icons of the feast of the Romanian Saints.

The construction of the church monastery dedicated to the Romanian Saints’ Sunday began in 2003, at the initiative and by care of the worthy remembering Patriarch Teoctist and it was finished in the autumn of 2006, together with a block of cells for monks. On the occasion of the consecration, on 29 October 2006, the new church was endowed with particles of the holy relics of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Saint Great Martyr George and of Saints Dionisios and Ambrosios, Bishops of Mediolan.

The Romanian Saints’ Sunday was instituted by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on 20 June 1992 according to the model of All Saints’ Sunday. The first Sunday after the Descent of the Holy Spirit or Pentecost is the All Saints’ Sunday, and the second is the Romanian Saints’ Sunday.

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