A new edition of the International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality is taking place at Bose Monastery in Italy from 8 to 11 September. This year’s conference is entitled Abba Pachomius: At the Origins of Community Life.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel sent a message to the conference on Wednesday, while Patriarch John X of Antioch is due to address participants on Friday.
“Monastic communities inspired by St Pachomius continue to bear witness today to the fact that the Gospel is the foundation of a way of life in which prayer, work, hospitality, forgiveness and mutual responsibility give rise to an authentic culture of communion,” Patriarch Daniel noted in his message.
“The legacy of St Pachomius teaches us that every ecclesial community — parish, monastery or family — finds its unity in Christ and is built up through prayer, obedience, service and sacrificial love, while those who serve God with faith live according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.”
Assistant Bishop Maxim of Danubius, of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy, represented Patriarch Daniel at the event.
From the programme
The conference opened on Tuesday with an address on behalf of the hosts by Sabino Chialà, the Roman Catholic prior of Bose Monastery.
Ioannis K. Grossmann, a researcher at the University of Vienna, then presented a brief biography of the “Father of Cenobitic Monasticism”, while Fr Armand Veilleux of Scourmont Abbey in Belgium gave a presentation on the characteristics of the Pachomian monastic experience.
On Thursday at 09:00, Archimandrite Hrisostom Rădășanu of the Dumitru Stăniloae Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași will deliver a presentation entitled St Pachomius the Great in Orthodox Iconography: The Case of Sucevița Monastery in Bucovina.
Papers were submitted in Italian, English, French and Greek, with simultaneous interpretation provided in Italian, English and Greek.
The International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality at Bose has reached its 32nd edition this year.
Last year’s conference was dedicated to St Anthony the Great, regarded as the founder of eremitic monasticism, a form of monastic life characterised by withdrawal into the desert and solitude.
Photo: Facebook / Monastero di Bose
