Vadu Negrilesei, Suceava County, Romania, December 5, 2024
Photo: arhiepiscopiasucevei.ro
For the first time since their canonization this summer, the feast of the great 20th-century Romanian ascetics Sts. Cleopa (Ilie) and Paisie (Olaru), was celebrated this week.
In July, the beloved elders of Sihăstria Monastery were canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church together with 14 other martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th century. The liturgical proclamation of their canonizations will take place next year in honor of the 140th anniversary of the recognition of the autocephaly of the Romanian Church and the 100th anniversary of its elevation to a Patriarchate.
Photo: arhiepiscopiasucevei.ro
On Monday, December 2, the feast of Sts. Cleopa and Paisie was celebrated at the monastery being built in their honor in Vadu Negrilesei, Suceava County, at the place where St. Cleopa labored for years in hermitic asceticism due to the persecutions of the communist authorities.
The Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the chapel in the monastery’s basement by His Grace Bishop Damaschin of Dornea, Vicar of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți, reports the Basilica News Agency.
“We especially remember today two messengers of God, two voices of God who spoke in the wilderness of this world, as was said about St. John the Baptist,” His Grace said.
“Let us pray to our fathers, our holy fathers, Cleopa and Paisie, to teach us to repent, to open our minds, hearts, and the ears of our hearts to understand the signs that God gives us... Let us place God’s words here to straighten our lives. Let us repent before God and God will receive us, will bless us, will protect us, will take care of us and this nation, and we won’t be left to fall into deception.”
Photo: arhiepiscopiasucevei.ro
At the end of the service, His Grace, together with the assembly of priests and faithful, went on a procession to the place where St. Cleopa lived for a period in the Stănișoara Mountains. There, a memorial service was celebrated for the two venerable fathers.
St. Cleopa’s renovated cell there was consecrated in 2021.
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