Techirghiol, Romania, July 20, 2021
Photo: wp.com
Yesterday, July 19, marked the 10th anniversary of the blessed repose of the great 20th-century Romanian confessor Elder Arsenie (Papacioc).
In honor of the occasion, a memorial service was held on Saturday at St. Mary’s Convent in the southeastern town of Techirghiol, where the Elder labored as spiritual father for the last 35 years of his life. Fr. Arsenie also spent many years of his life in communist prisons and in hiding from the godless authorities.
Photo: Facebook
A few hundred faithful attended the memorial served by priests from the monastery and local parishes, reports Iulian Constantin Soceanu, a local who was present at the service.
“For many of us, Archimandrite Arsenie Papacioc was a counselor, a preacher of the word of God, a man who knew how to bring peace to our souls,” writes Soceanu.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said the same of the long-suffering Elder when he reposed in 2011:
Fr. Arsenie was more a healer of the souls wounded by sins, than a judge of sinners. He harmoniously merged merciful kindness with encouragement for spiritual improvement. He was a man of peace and spiritual joy. His face, full of light, peace, joy, and hope, was always an icon of the presence of the deifying grace in his spiritual life and work. He had in his soul the peace and joy of the Kingdom of God, which he looked for and preached all his life on the earth.
Read more about Elder Arsenie in the interview, “God is Where There is Humility.”
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