For all the benefactions of the Great Union, we thank today the Most Holy Trinity,’ Patriarch Daniel said after the Te Deum service officiated on Saturday on Romania’s National Day at the Coronation Cathedral in Alba Iulia.
His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem and All Palestine also concelebrated.
‘We gratefully remember all Romanian heroes who sacrificed themselves for the freedom, unity and dignity of the Romanian people,’ the Patriarch of Romania noted Dec. 1.
‘Today, all Romanian citizens have the duty to keep and cultivate not only the gift of freedom but also the gift of national unity, as a symbol of the dignity of the Romanian people, in dialogue and cooperation with all peoples of the world,’ he added.
‘Many and blessed years, Romania!’
On Romania’s National Day, a Te Deum Service is officiated in all churches and monasteries within the Romanian Patriarchate offering prayers of thanksgiving for the benefactions poured out upon the Romanian people united in one country.
At 10.00 a.m., the bells of every church in the country rang for three minutes marking the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Great Union.
The two Patriarchs arrived Friday evening in Alba Iulia where they were welcomed by the local Archbishop Irineu at the Coronation Cathedral, in the presence of several hierarchs and many faithful.
Photography courtesy of Mircea Florescu / Basilica.ro
