On the second Sunday after the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was present at the church of the Romanian Saints of district 3 Bucharest which celebrated its dedication day.
The evangelical pericope of Saint Matthew 4:18-23 was read at the Divine Liturgy, which presents the Call of the first Apostles by Jesus Christ, our Lord. The moment they were called, they gave up everything they had and followed the Saviour of the world right away.
His Beatitude explained this prompt unconditioned reaction of the first Apostles during the sermon delivered at the place of worship of Bucharest.
“The explanation is that the One who called them was not an ordinary man, but God, the eternal Word made out of love for humans and for their salvation. His call was that of sincere, overwhelming, holy and eternal love and this is why they did not resist it and followed Him right away. Even though they did not understand it at the beginning, they felt that the One who was calling them had a divine power that gave life, peace, and joy, to which you could not resist if you were pure hearted”, His Beatitude said.
The call of the first disciples to Discipleship already shows the mystery of the beginning of the Church made at the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church also said.
“This mystery of the Apostolic Church which has Christ as foundation and the Saints Apostles as His first servants is the mystery of the Church throughout the centuries as preparation for the Kingdom of God. This is why the Church is an icon and a foretaste of the Kingdom of God in the world. It does not compete with any institution of this world and neither can she be replaced by any other institution of this world, because her main and unique purpose is the salvation of the humans and their deification”.
On the second Sunday after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Romanian Orthodox Church remembers all the Romanian Saints. The feast was scheduled by the decision of the Holy Synod in 1992.
“We have over 100 saints in our calendar and although they are remembered separately on various days of the year a feast of all the Romanian saints was also necessary which was scheduled on the second Sunday after the Pentecost in order to show that they do not live in the Kingdom of God separately, but united in the work of the Holy Spirit in the love of the Most Holy Trinity. At the same time, besides the Romanian saints known and canonised by the Church, namely listed in the calendar, there are still lots of Romanian saints not known by people, but known by God, so that today we remember all the Romanian saints both known and unknown. Because the Romanian people had to carry a cross very often in their history, they wished the Resurrection even more, as liberation from under foreign domination, as liberation from oppression and troubles. This is why they discovered the power of Resurrection in the Cross and understood the words of the Church: “Look, through the Cross joy came to all people”. Although Cross bearer and willing of Resurrection, the Romanian people have lots of saints both known and unknown who pray in heaven to the Most Holy Trinity. We have Saints Andrew and Filip the Apostles, as well as lots of martyrs, hierarchs, confessors of faith, and shepherds of communities. There are lots of pious people, rulers who built churches, defended the faith when faced with the foreign invasion, and developed the Christian culture, as well as lots of laic faithful, of mothers and fathers who gave birth to children, grew them up in faith, taught them to love Christ and His Church, to remember the passed away, to pray in churches and build churches. All these ones are remembered on the Sunday of the Romanian Saints. In order to venerate this day in quite a special way, the Akathistos of the Romanian saints was drafted and published last year at the Publishing House of Bible and Orthodox Mission Institute”, His Beatitude explained.
The Romanian Orthodox faithful have also celebrated Saint Hierarch Grigorie Dascalul. He was the metropolitan of Wallachia from 1823 – 1834, and distinguished himself through a tireless pastoral-missionary and social-cultural activity.
His personality was evoked by the Patriarch of Romania: “Today, due to a happy coincidence, we also remember Saint Hierarch Grigorie Dascalul, metropolitan of Wallachia whose relics are at Caldarusani Monastery. This great hierarch of Wallachia was ranked among saints in 2005. He was born in Bucharest. We have three saints in the calendar born in Bucharest so far: Saint Grigorie Dascalul, Saint Calinic from Cernica and Saint Irodion from Lainici. Thus, the city can give saints too. Although living in the city we can become saints if we are devoted and love Christ and His Church. We can lose salvation even if living in the monastery unless we are devoted and diligent. Thus, Saint Grigorie Dascalul was born in 1765. Lots of books were found in his cell and no money at all because he gave everything he had to the Church to print books. He ordained lots of priests, built churches, set up schools and printed spiritually useful books, and most of all he wanted to print all the saints’ lives. He remained in the conscience of the Church as a great missionary, prayerful and scholar. Grigorie Dascalul is one of the great hierarchs of Wallachia, besides Saint Hierarch Martyr of Ivir and Saint Calinic from Cernica”.
