Bucharest, November 29, 2018
Photo: basilica.ro His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem arrived in Bucharest this morning to concelebrate the feast of St. Andrew the First-Called with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania in the newly-consecrated National Cathedral in Bucharest tonight and tomorrow, reports the site of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
In addition to the feast of St. Andrew, Pat. Theophilos and Pat. Daniel will take part in the Alba Iulia ceremonies for the National Day of Romania and the Centenary Year of the Great Union of 1918.
After arriving at the airport at 9:50 this morning, the Patriarch of Jerusalem was greeted at the newly-consecrated National Cathedral in Bucharest by the Patriarch of Romania with the chanting of a polychronion, or the wishing of many years to the head of the Jerusalem Church.
“Welcome to our country and to our Church!” Pat. Daniel exclaimed to his brother Pat. Theophilos, recalling his previous visit in 2014 and noting that he is in Romania now to “concelebrate for the first time the patronal feast of the National Cathedral as a testimony and occasion of sacred communion and the missionary cooperation between our Churches.”
The Jerusalem Patriarch visited in 2014 for the celebration of St. Demetrius the New, the protector of Bucharest, bringing with him at that time a piece of the Honorable Wood of the Holy Cross for the veneration of the Romanian people.
Pat. Theophilos noted that he is excited to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew in the “architectural adornment of Bucharest,” which is the “fruit of the godliness of the Romanian people.”
Photo: basilica.ro He also announced that the delegation from Jerusalem had brought some true spiritual gifts for the Romanian people: a fragment of the relics of St. John Jacob of Neamţ the Chozebite, a Romanian saint who lived and repose in Jerusalem, and a piece of his vestments.
St. John Jacob was canonized by the Romanian Church in 1992 and by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 2016.
The relics will be available for all to venerate and then placed in one of the Cathedral’s chapels, dedicated to St. John Jacob.
As the Romanian Church previously reported, His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostom of Patra will also bring the precious hand of St. Andrew the Apostle from Greece for the feast.
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