His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria, Naoussa and Kampania, the region where the family of St. Gregory Palamas lived for a while, brought a fragment of the saint’s relics for the festivities of Saint Demetrius the New, Protector of Bucharest. On this occasion, the Greek Metropolitan said that the saints’ relics are a heavenly treasure and appreciated the love for saints shown by the Romanian people.

In his address at the reception of the relics at the Patriarchal Cathedral on Monday, the Greek Metropolitan of Veria evoked with emotion the devotion he had noticed in the Romanian people in 2009, the year of the canonisation of six members of the family of St Gregory Palamas.

Then, at the invitation of the archbishop of Lower Danube, the relics of St. Gregory Palamas were brought to Galati in eastern Romania.

Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria’s address: full text

It is with great emotion and joy, but also with the still vivid memory of our previous visits to your blessed country and the Romanian Patriarchate, to which I feel bound by old and strong ties of friendship and love in the Lord, that we are here today, in this holy place, which houses the relics of the Patron Saint and Protector of Bucharest, of our Holy and Venerable Father Demetrius the New, at the honourable invitation of Your Beatitude, bringing with us a fragment of the honourable and graceful relics and icon of our Father among Saints and wonderworker Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, together with the honourable icon of his Holy Family, of his holy parents Constantius and Kalloní, of his siblings the Venerable Theodosius, Macarius, Epicharis and Theodote.

We come from the Holy Metropolis of Veria, Naoussa and Kampania, from where Saints Gregory Palamas and his family lived for a time; from the place, they sanctified by their life, and where by their life they reached the measure of holiness and became Saints in our Church.

With particular emotion, however, I remember the impressive manifestations of piety and respect of the Saint-loving Romanian people, which I experienced a few years ago, in 2009, the year in which, by a Patriarchal and Synodal Act of our Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the members of the family of St. Gregory Palamas were canonised and numbered among the Saints of the Universal Orthodox Church, when we brought to Galati the honourable, graceful and myrrh-streaming relics of our Great Father of the Church, St. Gregory Palamas, at the invitation of His Eminence Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube, of course, with the high blessing of Your Beatitude.

It is, therefore, with great joy that I have accepted Your Beatitude’s invitation and brought here once again, not a worldly treasure or a historical legacy but a heavenly treasure; a fragment of the honourable relics of Saint Gregory Palamas, whose value lies not in size but the grace of the Holy Spirit, of the One Who dwelt in them and holds together the “institution of the Church”, of the One Who imparts charismata and turns “dry bones” into an inexhaustible fountain of sanctification and grace, healing both the sicknesses of soul and body.

Thank you, Your Beatitude, for allowing me to celebrate with Your Beatitude the three great mystical theologians of our Church, to whom you have dedicated this solemn year, namely Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, and our Venerable Father Paisius Velichkovsky of Neamt.

I express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude for Your Beatitude’s invitation. I humbly pray that the grace that flows from the holy relics of St. Gregory Palamas, who was the preacher of the uncreated and divine light and the teacher of the prayer of the mind, may strengthen You in the work and service of Your Beatitude, having many responsibilities, to bless the clergy and the believers of Bucharest and the whole of Romania.

Many happy years, Your Beatitude!

Photo: Basilica.ro

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