Romanian actor Florin Piersic told Doxologia.ro last Saturday how Saint Paraskeva of Iași miraculously healed him when he was a child, for his mother’s fervent prayers. The actor disclosed how attached he felt to the Church, his mother Vera being a priest’s sister.
The actor confessed he spent his childhood in an environment where the Church fit perfectly.
“I feel very attached to the Church, to priests, by having spent so much time at the monasteries in Pojorâta, Sadova, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Gura Humorului,” he said. “I would spend Christmas and Easter at Cajvana.”
His uncle, Orest Malcinschi, was the parish priest in the town of Cajvana, near Suceava city. “He was my father’s closest friend,” said the actor. “Coincidence or not, Orest Malcinschi and my father married Father Pașcanu’s two sisters.”
Florin Piersic remembers how, on Christmas, he couldn’t wait to play the semantron at the church in Cajvana: “The very first thing I would do was announce the sexton: ‘I’m coming to play the semantron!’”
“I pray to the Mother of God; I adore her,” said Florin Piersic.
The actor also confessed his devotion towards Saint Paraskeva. He still keeps the icon of the saint in front of which his mother prayed when he was a child and fell seriously ill:
“AI was very ill and my mother spent the whole night with her icon—which I have, I keep it all the time—to which my mother prayed, saying: ‘If you took away Lucica, please don’t take little Florin as well!’”
The actor is 84. His parents were from the northern-Romania region of Bucovina. He spent his childhood in Corlata, Pojorâta, Cajvana and even Chernivtsi. When he fell ill, the family lived in the city of Sibiu, on 2 Hecht St.
Florin Piersic has appeared in more than 40 movies, as well as television roles. He is especially known for his leading roles in The White Moor and the Seria Mărgelatu films. In 2006, he was voted 51st in a list of the 100 greatest Romanians, and in 2009, he was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Transylvania International Film Festival.
The Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates St. Paraskeva of Iași, the protectress of Moldavia, on October 14. Her whole relics repose in the Metropolitan Cathedral. Last year’s feast saw over 100,000 pilgrims waiting in line over many days to pay homage to the saint. Due to a new wave of pandemic spread, this year the Romanian authorities limited the access to the saint’s relics to residents of Iași only.
Photo courtesy of Youtube (screenshot)
