Aurelian Iftimiu

Patriarch Daniel explains the link between Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan and Christian baptism

On the Feast of the Theophany of the Lord, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a comprehensive and deeply theological sermon on the mystery of Christ’s Baptism in the River Jordan and its direct and living connection to the baptism of every Christian. Rooted in Holy Scripture and the patristic tradition of the Orthodox Church, the…

Jan 12, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Romanian Patriarchate envoy meets Jerusalem Patriarch, presents Centennial distinction

The Very Rev. Archimandrite Ioan Meiu, Representative of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Places and Superior of the Romanian Orthodox establishments in Jerusalem, Jericho, and the Jordan Valley, met late last year with His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem. On behalf of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, the archimandrite presented Patriarch Theophilos with a…

Jan 12, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Banat Metropolitan marks name day with psychiatric patients, lays foundation stone for hospital church

Metropolitan Ioan of Banat marked his patronal feast last week alongside patients at the Psychiatric Hospital and Security Measures Facility in Jebel, where he also laid the foundation stone for a new church. On Wednesday, January 7, His Eminence brought the patients more than 300 items of clothing, food, and other essential goods needed for…

Jan 12, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

One year since enthronement of first Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Ireland and Iceland

On Sunday, one year was marked since the enthronement of His Grace Bishop Nectarie as the first Romanian Orthodox bishop of Ireland and Iceland. The date also coincides with the hierarch’s birthday. He was born on January 11, 1980, in Vălenii de Munte, Prahova County, to his parents, Ion and Anișoara Petre. At his baptism,…

Jan 12, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of January (I)

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has declared the year 2026 the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women in the Church calendar. Accordingly, we invite you to discover each month the faces of holy women—mothers, wives, nuns, and martyrs—who are models of the Christian life from all ages. Saint Emilia, mother of Saint…

Jan 8, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Patriarch Daniel proclaims Solemn and Commemorative Year 2026, highlights Church’s role in strengthening the Christian family

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered a New Year’s message on January 1, following the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest, during a solemn ceremony marking the proclamation of 2026 as the Solemn Year of the Pastoral Care of the Christian Family and the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women of the Church calendar…

Jan 5, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Metropolitan Iosif offers condolences, prays for Swiss fire victims in hospitals

Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe on Friday conveyed condolences to the families of victims of the deadly fire at the Crans-Montana mountain resort in Switzerland, which broke out on New Year’s Eve and claimed dozens of lives. Swiss authorities have said the blaze killed at least 40 people and left 119…

Jan 5, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

76 years since discovery of relics of Saint Ephraim the New in Greece

Seventy-six years have passed since the discovery of the holy relics of Saint Ephraim the New at the monastery where he was martyred, near the town of Nea Makri, Greece. In 1945, the nun Makaria settled among the ruins of the former Monastery of the Annunciation, where she began rebuilding the monastic settlement in which…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Time is a life between ‘Passing’ and ‘Coming’: Banat Metropolitan reflects on youth in God’s Kingdom

Metropolitan Ioan of Banat told worshippers gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timisoara on New Year’s Eve that time is like a life lived between two verbs: “to pass” — which denotes biological ageing and the sombre perception of years slipping away — and “to come”, a verb referring to the way a person responds…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Bishop Ioan Casian hails man–woman complementarity as God-given path to human fulfilment

In his New Year message, Bishop Ioan Casian of Canada wrote about the idea of renewal and about the family as a place of spiritual and communal renewal. His message opens with a quotation from St Paul the Apostle: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Bishop Siluan urges Romanians in Italy to cherish families as small churches at start of 2026

At the start of the new year 2026, Bishop Siluan of Italy delivered a pastoral message to Romanians living in Italy, urging them to value the family as “a small church” and to honour its role in preserving faith and identity in the diaspora. In his New Year message, the bishop called on the faithful…

Jan 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu