Funeral service for Archbishop Pimen officiated at St John the New Monastery in Suceava: VIDEO & PHOTOS

A memorial Divine Liturgy and a funeral service were held last Friday for the Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti at St John the New Monastery.

Archbishop Pimen of Suceava and Rădăuți reposed in the Lord on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at the Matei Balș Infectious Diseases Institute in Bucharest following a second heart attack. He was transported to Bucharest after testing positive for Covid-19.

The services were presided over by Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina who will also be locum tenens for the Suceava Archdiocese until the Holy Synod elects a new Archbishop.

Concelebrants included His Eminence Archbishop Teodosie of Tomis and His Grace Bishop Damaschin of Dorna, the assistant bishop of the Suceava Archdiocese.

After the funeral messages of Patriarch Daniel and President Klaus Iohannis were read out, Metropolitan Teofan spoke about Archbishop Pimen’s ascetical figure related to the Holy Fathers of the Desert.

‘His direct, brief speech without any lukewarm mincing words created the feeling of a man who has no time to waste in unnecessary explanations and justifications. Its external appearance – an extension of the inner one – was similar to the icons at Voroneț. It was, in fact, an extension of them.’

“He suffered deeply for alienated Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The tomb of His Highness Saint Stephen the Great was the altar of Moldova, which he wanted complete in the body of Romania,” added His Eminence Metropolitan Teofan.

His Grace Bishop Damaschin said goodbye to his spiritual father, Archbishop Pimen, expressing his sincere gratitude: “Father Pimen, not for the mistakes of Your Eminence has this severe disease come. It came because of our disobedience, because of all the sorrows we have done to you, for the imperfections from those things you asked us to fulfil.”

“This disease came so that you may be, even in the last days of life, together with the afflicted, with those in pain, with the sick, with the beloved Bukovina, but so tried and saddened by this plague,” Bishop Damaschin said May 22.

The lifeless body of Archbishop Pimen was taken to the Sihăstria Putnei Monastery to rest in the tomb he had prepared during his lifetime.

Photography courtesy of Doxologia.ro / Fr. Silviu Cluci, Tudorel Rusu

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