Saint Joseph the Merciful was commemorated last Sunday at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iasi by an assembly of hierarchs including Metropolitans Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina and Petru of Bessarabia, as well as Bishop Antonie of Balti and the assistant bishop Calinic of Botosani.
On Saturday evening, His Grace Bishop Calinic of Botosani led the all-night vigil in the honour of Saint Joseph Naniescu the Merciful, Doxologia reports.
After the service, the St Joseph’s holy relics were carried in procession around the cathedral.
On Sunday, January 25, many believers attended the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the four Romanian hierarchs.
The homily was delivered by Metropolitan Teofan who spoke about the virtues of St. Joseph the Merciful listing humility, repentance, and the love for God.
‘Saint Joseph the Merciful got to know his flock through a knowledge springing from humility, from a spirit of repentance, from prayer and divine love,’ Metropolitan Teofan said.
Quoting Father Dumitru Staniloae, the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina said that Saint Joseph had “a heartbreaking sensitivity to any pain, he felt sensitivity and empathy for the pain of others greater than for his own pain.”
At the end of the service, Metropolitan Teofan presented Metropolitan Petru with a fragment of the relics of Saint Joseph the Merciful as a blessing for the believers in Chisinau.
The holy relics will be placed in the Metropolitan Chapel of St. John the Theologian in Chisinau.
Another particle of the Saint’s relics is kept at the church in the village of Răzălăi, the district of Singerei, and it was offered on the occasion of the local canonization in 2018.
Metropolitan Iosif Naniescu was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on October 5, 2017, with the name of Saint Joseph the Merciful, Metropolitan of Moldavia. The canonization ceremony took place on March 25, 2018 at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi in the presence of the Romanian Patriarch.
Photography courtesy of Doxologia/ Oana Nechifor & Fr. Silviu Cluci
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