His Grace Assistant Bishop Timotei of Prahova Monday celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest to honour Saint Gregory the Theologian, the patron saint of theology schools.
The staff and students of the Orthodox Seminary in Bucharest gathered in prayer to thank their patron saint for helping them carry out their activities in a difficult year due to the pandemic.
“Saint Gregory, in a very short time, succeeded through his sermons and struggle to change the life of the Church of Constantinople,” Bishop Timotei said Jan. 25.
The Director of the Seminary, Fr. Marian Coltan, said that the school was constantly concerned to provide the students and professors ‘all necessary instruments’ for a proper education.
“With the help of the Ministry of National Education and the Education Department of the City Hall of Bucharest’s Sector 4, 100 tablets were distributed with free internet, so that the educational process can take place in very good conditions,” said the seminary’s director.
“Professors continued to perfect their teaching skills, preparing for teaching degrees, especially in the post-secondary health profile. The seminary’s library benefited from new books this year, so that students, although in the online school, can document themselves,” Fr Coltan added.
“Our thanks at this time are addressed to God and to St. Gregory the Theologian,” the director concluded.
The Orthodox Theological Seminary in Bucharest had a difficult history. In communism, it was abolished and then re-established.
The use of the buildings at Radu Vodă Monastery dates back to 1948, with a break of almost a decade, when, in these state-seized buildings, a political school of the Romanian Communist Party and a secular high school operated.
In the school year 2004-2005, the new building was put into use, built with the support of the World Bank and the City Hall of Bucharest’s Sector 4. The Orthodox Theological Seminary is included in the scheme of the Ministry of Education and functions as a secular theoretical high school with a theological profile.
Photography courtesy of Lumina Newspaper / Luigi Ivanciu
Follow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews
