In his homily on the feast of St Parascheva of Iaşi, Metropolitan Teofan offered some answers to the challenges of the present times. To stop the community spread of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus, Romanian authorities imposed harsh restrictions for this year’s celebrations: pilgrims from outside the city of Iași were denied access to the cathedral where…
During his Sunday homily, the Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti referred to human trafficking, calling it ‘an outrageous sin that cries to heaven,’ adding that it leads to spiritual death. ‘Spiritual death comes too often from the handcuffing in which other people throw away the weak. They steal their identity, present and future. They rob…
The third World Statistics Day is celebrated around the globe on 20 October 2020 with the theme “Connecting the world with data we can trust.” This theme reflects the importance of trust, authoritative data, innovation, and the public good in national statistical systems. The celebration of World Statistics Day 2020 is a global collaborative endeavor,…
In addition to many lay personalities, the Chef of Mount Athos has so far cooked for four Primates of Orthodox Autocephalous Churches including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch and Russia. In an exclusive interview with the Basilica News Agency marking the International Chefs’ Day (October 20), Father Epiphanios of the Mylopotamos…
European Day Against Trafficking in Human Beings is “a day of gratitude, awareness and memory,” His Grace Assistant Bishop Damaschin of Dorna said on Saturday in a message urging everyone to be more present, more attentive to what is happening to their neighbour. “We are all responsible,” he wrote. “The Church supports, in word, action…
Marking Father Dumitru Staniloae’s 27 year memorial anniversary, the members of the Romanian Orthodox Christian Students Association (ASCOR) gathered at Cernica Monastery ‘to pray for the rest of the soul of the reverend professor and his generation, but also to receive power and strength to profess the true faith and fulfil our role in society,…
The Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest keeps a very important gift of Romanians: the holy relics of Saint Demetrios the New, Protector of Bucharest. Received from General Pyotr Saltykov, the holy relics have been blessing Romanians for over 240 years. In 1786, the relics of St. Demetrios were placed in a wooden reliquary, clad in silver…
‘The Church and the religious art in Northeastern Romania represent true cultural landmarks that attract visitors from all over the world,’ Romania’s Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu wrote on Facebook, AGERPRES reports. The statement was made following a meeting of the minister with a delegation of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Radauti, held at the…
The patriarchal auxiliary bishop Varlaam of Ploiesti performed the ordination to the priesthood of Deacon Gheorghe Chascear during the Divine Liturgy at St Anthimos Monastery in Bucharest on Sunday, October 11, 2020. Father Gheorghe Chascear is of Ukrainian origin and will serve at Campulung la Tisa parish within the Romanian Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate. ‘We…
Orthodox clerics and faithful from America shall unite again to participate in the Washington, DC 2021 March for Life, as they did in previous years. The pro-life organization Orthodox Christians for Life and Orthodox Christian Network, the agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America (ACOB-US), have already created…
The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) issued on Friday a statement which warns that online children exploitation has intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and that fewer victims are identified and helped. Certain attitudes and realities facilitate the phenomenon. Information and awareness can save lives. On the…
Patriarch Daniel on Thursday blessed a processional reliquary containing a fragment of the relics of St Paisios of Neamț, saying that the Saint founded a school of spirituality useful for the whole Orthodoxy. St. Paisios of Neamț (Velichkovsky) organized and guided monastic communities at Dragomirna, Secu and Neamț monasteries in Romania. He translated the Philokalia…
The Romanian Patriarchate’s Spokesperson Vasile Bănescu commented on the decision to ban this year’s pilgrimage from Bucharest, on the patronal feast of the Patriarchal Cathedral. The spokesman reminded that the pilgrimage is a manifestation of religious freedom and that pilgrims and the Romanian Orthodox Church deserve more respect and trust from the authorities. “The rigorously…
Romanian actor Florin Piersic told Doxologia.ro last Saturday how Saint Paraskeva of Iași miraculously healed him when he was a child, for his mother’s fervent prayers. The actor disclosed how attached he felt to the Church, his mother Vera being a priest’s sister. The actor confessed he spent his childhood in an environment where the…
The virtual tour of the Diveyevo Monastery is available online on the monastery’s website. It includes 120 panoramas made in the daytime and at night. The tour presents an aerial panorama, views of the holy spring of St. Seraphim, of the Holy Canal along which walk and pray pilgrims and the Mother of God herself,…
The 2020 edition of Byzanfest, the first film festival in history organized exclusively online, will be held between October 23 and November 8. The festival features exclusively films made by Orthodox directors and has two main sections: short and feature-length films. This year’s themes are isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, monastic life, mental health, culture,…
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America sent on Wednesday a “message of hope and spiritual encouragement” to the clergy, the faithful and all the people of goodwill, during the sanitary crisis which has continued this fall. “The Coronavirus pandemic has affected every human being in the world with some…
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania has urged co-responsibility and cooperation between the Church and the Romanian State after the pilgrimage to Iasi for the feast of Saint Parascheva was banned for non-locals. Call for co-responsibility and cooperation to avoid excessive constraints: full text The Romanian Patriarchate expresses its full solidarity with all Orthodox believers…
Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina has warned against the violation of religious freedom rights as authorities decided that only people domiciled in Iași are allowed to enter the Metropolitan Cathedral and venerate the holy relics of Saint Parascheva. “Moldavia is currently living one of the saddest periods in its history.” The Metropolitan released a…
Florin Dobre, the only Romanian fashion designer with collections featured in Vogue and GQ magazines, announced he was admitted to “Patriarch Justinian” Faculty of Theology in Bucharest. It was a sudden thought to become a Theology student. He disclosed it to his spiritual father, who gave him the blessing to go to the admission exam even though he…