Seattle, October 10, 2022
Photo: Facebook
Orthodox faithful came out in droves to venerate the relics of a family of royal Romanian martyrs that recently visited a number of parishes on the west coast.
The relics of the Holy Brâncoveanu Martyrs were brought to the U.S. by Fr. Emil Nedelea Cărămizaru, the rector of the Church of St. George in Bucharest, together with the church’s relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The Romanian priest was overjoyed to see how many Orthodox Americans came to venerate the beloved Romanian saints at the Church of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Seattle and in other parishes:
Rivers of people have been flowing here in Seattle for nine hours to venerate the hand of the Holy Hierarch Nicholas and the relics of the Holy Martyr Constantin Brâncoveanu.
I’m very impressed by the fact that many Americans who converted to Orthodoxy were among the first to welcome and honor the holy relics.
Praise be to God in His saints!
The relics were first taken to the Romanian Cathedral in Chicago late last month, and then to a handful of parishes in California and Washington.
Fr. Emil also made a special stop at the ROCOR Cathedral in San Francisco to venerate the relics of St. John (Maximovitch).
Photo: Facebook
“A meeting of great emotion,” Fr. Emil writes. “I can’t describe in words the experience there… When for a few minutes the hand of the Holy Hierarch Nicholas of Myra in Lycea was placed on the reliquary of another Holy Hierarch, who works many miracles according to God’s will, everything turned into light… Unique moments, spiritual experiences of an intensity that can’t be contained in words!”
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St. Constantin Brâncoveanu was ruler of Wallachia from October 29, 1688 to March 24, 1714, when he was dethroned and captured by the Ottomans and transported to Istanbul together with his four sons, Constantin, Stephan, Radu, and Matei, where he was tortured and eventually executed by decapitation together with his sons and his treasurer Ianache Vacarescu.
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