The Delegation of the Metropolitanate of Egyna ended its visit to Romania

The Delegation of the Metropolitanate of Egyna headed by His Eminence Efrem, Metropolitan of Ydra, Spetses and Egyna ended its visit to Romania. The visit took place from 23 – 30 October 2012.

This morning around 8.30 hours, the Greek delegation left for the airport taking the relics of Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Egyna (his right hand) with them. Before leaving for the airport, the Delegation was received by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the Patriarchal Residence.

Here, the Patriarch of Romania thanked His Eminence Efrem and the other members of the delegation for having brought the relics of Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Egyna and for the joy made to the Romanian people with these relics.

“We are very grateful for the great gift you gave us these days, a special blessing and joy because this missionary work, namely bringing the relics of Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Egyna, gathered over 120,000 pilgrims here, in Bucharest. This blessing strengthened the pilgrims’ hope especially of those who suffer from various diseases, and most of all, the communion between our Churches as well as the friendship between Greeks and Romanians. We pray Jesus Christ, our Saviour, to give you good health, every success in your activity and much joy to give to other people too through the saints, especially through Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Egyna who receives the visit of the pilgrims at Egyna and goes, from time to time, to visit other saints, so that these days he visited Saint Pious Dimitrios the New in Bucharest. We wish you a blessed return and joy, and kindly ask you to convey all our high esteem and gratitude to abbess Teodosia for this great joy that she made us through the relics of Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Egyna brought here, in Romania. We wish you many blessed years of life!

His Eminence Metropolitan Efrem thanked the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church for having the possibility to know the devotion of the Romanian people.

“Your Beatitude, Your Graces, Reverend monks and fathers, we are overwhelmed with emotion at this time and it is rather difficult for us to express all the power of the feelings that we experienced and that we are living now. We were very impressed by the devotion of the Romanian people, by the crowd of faithful, of pilgrims, who came here these days. We could say that we noticed live that Saint Nectarie is the Saint of the Romanians. The spiritual relationship, between us and you, between our Holy Metropolitanate of Ydra, Spetses and Egyna and the Romanian Patriarchate becomes stronger and stronger and deeper and deeper. The cultivation of faith, love and devotion of the Romanian people towards Saint Nectarie from Egyna began a few years ago, in 2006, due to His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, when he was Metropolitan of Moldova and Bucovina, and invited us to Iași where we brought the holy head of Saint Hierarch Nectarie. Saint Nectarie is the one who unites us, who inspires us, who helps us, and I had the opportunity to hear and read many things about Saint Nectarie, not only about his life and wonders, but also about the Romanians’ experience who lived wonders due to Saint Nectarie. I express once again my personal thanks and of those who accompany me, on behalf of the abbess of the Holy Monastery of Egyna for all the love, richness and brilliant reception that we had these days at the highest aristocratic level which characterises you. Now, we go back with our souls full of joy. We also thank Their Graces who assist you as well as the other fathers who contributed to the organisation of these manifestations, which impressed us a lot. As I said on other occasions, hundreds of pilgrims come to our Monastery in Egyna every day to Saint Hierarch Nectarie and we hope that these relations between us will be completed through Your Beatitude’s visit to the Monastery of Saint Nectarie of Egyna. We admired the renewal of the Romanian Orthodox Church from all points of view, from an administrative point of view, but most of all in the cultural, spiritual, and theological fields. We had the opportunity to see Your Beatitude’s care for the people who suffer and this is why I convey you best wishes of good health, many blessed creative years of life, and may God help you consecrate as soon as possible the Patriarchal Cathedral, the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation!”

As Rev. Archimandrite Timotei Aioanei, Cultural exarch of the Archdiocese of Bucharest and Great Ecclesiarch of the Patriarchal Cathedral told us about these events, a particle of the relics of Saint Hierarch Nectarie from Radu Vodă Monastery will continue to be on the esplanade of the Patriarchal Cathedral for the pilgrims to worship it.

The Greek Delegation took off from Henri Coandă International Airport to Athens, at 10.00 o’clock.

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