Marking its 517th anniversary, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel re-consecrated Sunday the church of Dealu Monastery referring to it as ‘an important landmark of Romanian national identity and unity’.
The Patriarch of Romania said that this monastic settlement is ‘the holy place keeping as in a reliquary the honourable head of Ruler Prince Michael the Brave, who made the first union of the Romanian Principalities, Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldova, in 1600.’
Although this union ‘was a brief moment of history, a lightening through heavy, oppressing clouds,’ the Patriarch noted, ‘it filled the Romanians’ soul with an unimaginable hope, having the high value of a symbol’.
The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church reiterated the importance of the union achieved by the Wallachian Prince through which ‘the sacred ideal of the unity of Romanians remained in the historical consciousness of the Romanian people.’
‘The event of the 1600 union was a luminous beacon or a symbol for the next generations who fought for national freedom, unity and dignity, bearing fundamental fruit through the 1859 Union of the Romanian Principalities, and culminating with the 1918 Great Union,’ Patriarch Daniel said June 10.
Dealu Monastery – a symbol of church art in Romania
The Romanian Patriarch that the five-century-old church near Targoviste ‘represents an expressive symbol of the lasting true faith, spirituality and church art in the Romanian space.’
Serving as the most important necropolis of Wallachian Princes, the Dealu Monastery is the foundation of Ruler Prince Radu the Great (1495-1508), most probably built on the site of a church dating back to the time of Mircea the Elder (1386 – 1394; 1397 – 1418).
The first printing house in Romania operated inside this monastery, where the famous hieromonk Makarios carried out his printing activities.
The monastery’s church was restored during 2010-2018.
At the initiative and under the guidance of His Eminence Hon Metropolitan Nifon, important works have been undertaken to consolidate and restore the whole monastic assembly.
Synaxis of All Romanian Saints
Concelebrants for the Divine Liturgy presided over by Patriarch Daniel included Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina, Metropolitan Andrei of Cluj, Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia, Metropolitan Nifon of Targoviste, Archbishop Irineu of Alba Iulia, Archbishop Ioachim of Roman and Bacau, and Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube.
In his homily during the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude spoke of the importance of the Sunday of All Romanian Saints.
He noted that on this feast day we honour ‘the Romanian Saints of all times, both those known or canonized by the Church and those unknown and yet unglorified by the Church, but whom God knows.’
‘Today we remember the communion of Romanian Saints: martyrs, venerable fathers and mothers, hierarchs, priests, ruler princes, defenders of the homeland and the faith, as well as the multitude of holy lay believers, known or unknown by their name, who have fasted and prayed much, who have professed the faith in difficult times, who have built churches and monasteries, who have given birth, brought up and educated children in Christ’s love and the love of nation and Church,’ His Beatitude said.
The Patriarch of Romania pointed to the fact that through the Romanian Saints ‘our people has more intercessors in heavens before the Holy Trinity to keep their apostolic faith inherited from St Andrew the Apostle and from the eastern Greek- and Latin-speaking missionaries who preached the Gospel on the territory of our country.’
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel awarded the abbess Emanuela Preda the Order of the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helen.
The Patriarch also presented Metropolitan Nifon with a blessing cross.
In turn, Metropolitan Nifon presented Patriarch Daniel with an icon depicting the Mother of God.
Memorial service for Prince Michael the Brave
The same day a memorial service was held at the tomb where the honourable head of Ruler Prince Michael the Brave is buried.
Several other princes of Wallachia are buried at the monastery including Radu the Great, founder of the monastery’s church, Vlad II, son of Mircea the Elder, Vladislav II, Vlad the younger, Radu Voda Badica, Vlad the Drowned, Patrascu Voda the Good.
Dealu Monastery is located in Viforâta, 6 km away from Targoviste.
Photography: Mihnea Păduraru/ZL
