During his speech at the Monastic Synaxis of the Bucharest Archdiocese on Thursday, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel referred to the desire to canonize Nectarios Protopsaltes, an Athonite monk of Romanian origin who was the disciple of the newly-glorified Saint Macarios Protopsaltes.
Regarding the Commemorative Year of hymnographers and church chanters (psaltai), His Beatitude recalled that the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church included the Venerable Macarios Protopsaltes among the saints and the Archdiocese of Bucharest is preparing a canonization ceremony for the following year.
“On the other hand, since a close disciple of Saint Macarios Protopsaltes was Nectarios Protopsaltes, Nectarie Crețu from Căldărușani Monastery, we began to think about the necessary steps to inform the Ecumenical Patriarchate, so that we can canonize, shortly, the disciple of Saint Macarios Protopsaltes, namely Nectarios Protopsaltes or Nectarios Vlachos, as he was known on the Holy Mount Athos, the Nightingale of the Holy Mount Athos,” Patriarch Daniel said.
The Patriarch of Romania reminded that this step will have to be carried out by the Ecumenical Patriarchate or the Romanian Patriarchate with the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarchate “because the rule is as follows: the Church on whose territory a person ended their earthly life has the right to be a witness to the final part of that person’s life and, as such, to testify and support their inclusion among the saints.”
In the case of the Venerable Nectarios Protopsaltes, he spent the last decades of his life on the Holy Mount Athos under the canonical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
“Here we are dealing with an apostolic recommendation,” Patriarch Daniel noted, adding that the sanctity of someone’s life must first be confirmed in the canonical jurisdiction where they ended their life. Only then “the mother Church, (the one) from the beginning, can include them among the saints.”
The canonization of St. Peter Mogila, which was initially conducted in Russia and Ukraine before being embraced by the Romanian Orthodox Church, is one such instance.
In addition to the fact that Venerable Nectarios had a unique voice, it should also be noted “that this Romanian monk was a great hesychast”, His Beatitude recalled. “Here is the essence of his holiness: he was an incessant supplicant, and he had another visible virtue: when someone praised him, he immediately left.”
The Ecumenical Patriarchate was presented with a proposal by the Romanian Patriarchate to canonise two additional Athonite Elders: Petroniu Tănase from Prodromos Skete and Dionisie Ignat from Colciu Cell of St George.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
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