Vânători-Neamț, Neamț County, Romania, November 17, 2022
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of St. Paisius Velichkovsky, the great monastic father who is largely responsible for the hesychastic revival throughout Eastern Europe.
In honor of the anniversary the Moldovan Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate declared 2022 the Year of St. Paisius, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate of Romania chose him as its patron saint this year. For the Romaniain Orthodox Church, 2022 is the Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saints Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and Paisius of Neamț.
And on Tuesday, His Eminence Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the feast of St. Paisius at Neamț Monastery in northeastern Romania, where the great saint himself served as abbot.
Met. Teofan was joined by His Eminence Metropolitan Philip—the Ukrainian hierarch of St. Paisius’ hometown of Poltava—and several other hierarchs from the Romanian Orthodox Church, reports the Basilica News Agency.
His Grace Bishop Benedict of Bistrița spoke about St. Paisius’ great longing to serve the Lord fully and become everything that a man can be in the Lord. St. Paisius wasn’t satisfied with just a little, the hierarch emphasized.
Met. Teofan implored the faithful to always be grateful to God for the great gift given to the Christian world, including Moldova and Neamț Monastery, through the great St. Paisius.
“The liturgical conscience of the Church calls St. Paisius the candlestick of light, the vessel of prayer, the source of virtue, the one who reached divine and true knowledge through the gift of God. The hymns of the Church show that he fulfilled the will of God and transformed the land of Moldova into Heaven, his heart became Heaven, with the throne of the Holy God in the midst of it,” His Eminence said.
St. Paisius is recognized as the founder of the spirituality that then developed in the 17th-18th centuries, Met. Philip of Poltava said.
Abbot Benedict of Neamț Monastery emphasized that the brotherhood “lives in the spirit of the great hesychast.”
Following the Liturgy, a new section of the monastery museum was blessed and dedicated to St. Paisius.
An international symposium, “The Spiritual and Cultural Heritage of St. Paisius of Neamț: 300 Years Since His Birth (1722-2022),” was also held in Iași from November 13 to 16, with participants from nine countries.
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