Archimandrite Melchisedec Velnic, the abbot of Putna Monastery in Romania, blessed on Tuesday a reliquary with a fragment from the relics of Holy Hierarch Jacob of Putna (+1778) who was canonized in 2017.
A delegation made of the abbot and other four members of the monastic community then departed for America, where the relics will be offered to the “St. Demetrios the New” Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Middletown, New York.
The Putna monks will be in America until June 1, invited by Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae of the Americas.
They will take the relics to the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral of Sts. Constantine and Helen in Chicago, which celebrates is 20th anniversary on Sunday, May 21, with a Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Romanian Metropolitan of the Americas.
The relics will then be officially handed over to the Romanian monastery in New York on Thursday, May 25, on the feast of the Ascension, which is the summer patronal feast of the monastic community.
His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae of the Americas will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the monastery on Saturday, May 27, to allow Romanians from US to gather in greater numbers for the feast.
Later that day, Archim. Melchisedec Velnic will speak to the faithful in a forum entitled “Talking with the Abbot of Putna: On Our Fathers in the Lord, On Being a Christian Today”.
The fragment of Holy Hierarch Jacob of Putna is offered with the blessing of Patriarch Daniel of Romania and of Archbishop Calinic of Suceava and Rădăuți.
The Abbot of “St. Demetrios the New” Monastery, Fr. Ieremia Berbec, was himself a monk of Putna before 2020, when he came to Middletown.
Tr. by Orthochristian.com
Photo credit: Putna Monastery
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