“The saints gather us together today. We have come to celebrate a saint—St. John Jacob—who was also a man, yet his eyes were always fixed on God,” Metropolitan Chariton of Kananga of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa said on Wednesday during the patronal feast of the Theological Seminary at Neamț Monastery.
His Eminence celebrated the Divine Liturgy together with Bishop Macarie of Northern Europe.
Seminary students, faculty members, and faithful from across Romania and abroad participated in the service.
“Let us not be afraid”
The Metropolitan of Kananga emphasised that the saints gather believers around Christ and call them to live close to God by overcoming fear.
“St. John Jacob cast away fear, and God drew near to him. That is why we celebrate him today: to encourage us to become saints ourselves.”
Metropolitan Chariton urged the faithful to take the saints as their model.
“If we celebrate them without allowing their example to move us, then we lose everything. Let us read the saint’s life, find ourselves in it, do what he did, and tell ourselves that we, too, must become like him.”
At the conclusion of the service, Bishop Macarie spoke about the joy of gathering in communion around St. John Jacob the New Chozebite and encouraged the faithful to imitate the saint’s spirit of sacrifice and steadfastness.
“St. John Jacob, who pursued the ascetic life far from his homeland, rejoices that we have gathered from many places to glorify the Holy and Life-giving Trinity, for all the saints rejoice whenever we are with the Lord and in the Lord, just as they themselves were.”
“Veniamin Costachi” Theological Seminary
Rev. Professor Viorel Laiu, the school’s principal, expressed gratitude to everyone who participated in the celebration of St. John Jacob the New Chozebite, the patron saint of the Orthodox High School Theological Seminary at Neamț Monastery.
The seminary church was consecrated in 1997 by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
Its interior frescoes were consecrated by Patriarch Daniel in 2009, while the exterior paintings—whose beauty earned the church the nickname “the Voroneț of Neamț”—were consecrated in 2015 by Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina.
Photo: Doxologia / Fr. Silviu Cluci
