Four years have passed since a deadly blaze killed 64 and wounded 147 at the Colectiv rock club in Bucharest in 2015. The mainstream media wrote many stories about a lack of involvement of the Church in helping the victims, but there are several important details omitted until today. Among the first to arrive at…
In Poland, more than 2 million elderly people live in rural areas – many of them alone. This in turn leads to isolation, social exclusion and declining health. Population ageing, migration of young people to cities and structural changes within families are just some of the things that have brought this situation about. To tackle isolation…
The St. Vlasius Theological Academy in Durrës is one of the most modern schools in Albania, Orthodox Times informs. Archbishop Anastasios opened the school, which started operating as a seminar in 1992. Its main aim is to become a nursery for priests. Initially, a hotel was the first building to house the academy when 45…
The 4th anniversary of a fire that killed 64 and wounded 147 at the Colectiv club in Bucharest in 2015 will be marked by a memorial service organized by the Archdiocese of Bucharest on Wednesday, October 30, 2019. The service will be officiated at St Nicholas – Broșteni church in Bucharest. The liturgical program includes…
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church met on Monday, October 28, 2019, at the Synodal Hall of the Patriarchal Residence under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. During the meeting, the Holy Synod resolved to declare the year 2021 as Solemn Year of the pastoral care of Romanians abroad and Commemorative Year…
A solemn meeting of the Holy Synod was organized on Monday at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest during which the main activities carried out by the Romanian Orthodox Church related to this year’s solemn and commemorative topics were reconsidered. The meeting was chaired by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the Patriarch Teoctist Aula Magna. The…
The Latvian Orthodox Church has been restoring previously defunct churches and building new churches since Latvia separated from the Soviet Union in 1991. Meeting in Riga today, the Council of the Latvian Orthodox Church announced that since 1992, the number of Orthodox communities in Latvia has grown from 93 to 126, Orthochristians reports. The Council…
Holding his son by the hand, the famous fashion designer Florin Dobre was captured by the Basilica.ro photographer joining the pilgrims for the annual procession with the relics of Saint Demetrios the New, Protector of Bucharest. Being the only Romanian fashion designer with collections featured in Vogue and CQ magazines, Florin Dobre bore witness to…
His Beatitude Rastislav, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, celebrates on 28 October his name day. Rastislav or Rostislav, also known as St. Rastislav, was the second known ruler of Moravia (846–870). Upon his initiative two brothers, Cyril and Methodius sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 863, translated…
The President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, venerated the holy relics of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher during a Doxology officiated on Saturday in Thessaloniki marking the 107th anniversary of the city’s liberation from Ottoman rule. The celebrations in honour of the Patron Saint of Thessaloniki began on Friday, October 25, when…
The Patriarch of Romania urged the thousands of pilgrims who attended the Divine Liturgy on the feast day of Bucharest Patron Saint Demetrios the New to have the humility and courage as the woman with the issue of blood, and to acquire humility and hope as Jairus. Offering his reflections on the gospel reading from…
The main dome of the new Orthodox Church in Warsaw has been completely painted by iconographers. The completion of the frescoes was announced by the local archdiocese in a communique published on the Polish Church’s website. The Church of Hagia Sophia in Warsaw has five domes with the main dome towering at a height of…
Metropolitan Theologos of Serres and Nigriti on Friday morning celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church of St Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher in Thessaloniki marking the beginning of the celebrations honouring the city’s Patron Saint. Following the Divine Liturgy, the military Saint’s relics and a large icon decorated with flowers were carried in procession on the…
The Orthodox faithful of the village of Kotoklo in the Kakhi District in the historical Georgian section of Azerbaijan known as Saingilo had great cause to rejoice earlier this month, as the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in their local church for the first time in just under a century. His Grace Bishop Dimitri (Kapanadze) of…
The Patriarchal Cathedral’s square in Bucharest was filled with pilgrims coming from across Romania to celebrate the feast day of Saint Demetrios the New, the spiritual protector of the capital. Thousands of believers waited in line for hours to bow down before the relics of St Demetrios the New, the newly-glorified Saint Dionysius Erhan, and…
‘We are here as part of the delegation of the Metropolis of Chisinau to bring thanks to His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel for the gesture he made for the entire clergy and the people in Bessarabia by including among the Saints Bishop Dionysius, who had a monastic vocation and a holy life and who gives us…
Bishop Dionysius Erhan of Cetatea Alba and Ismail was canonized during a ceremony in Bucharest on Sunday attended by the Patriarch of Romania, members of the Holy Synod, state officials and a delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Metropolis of Chisinau. In front of thousands of pilgrims in the Patriarchal Assembly’s Square, the Romanian bishop of…
The Basilica Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate was established twelve years ago on the feast day of Saint Demetrios the New, Protector of Bucharest, marking the beginning of a fruitful Orthodox Christian ministry in Romania and abroad. The departments of the Media Centre – Radio Trinitas, Trinitas TV, Lumina Publications, Basilica News Agency and…
On Friday evening, October 25, 2019, His Grace Bishop Timotei of Prahova officiated the All-night Vigil in honour of Saint Demetrius the Myrrh-gusher of Thessalonica, at the outdoor altar of the Patriarchal Cathedral. Members of the Potirul Byzantine Music Choir of Radu Vodă Monastery gave the liturgical answers. In his sermon, His Grace Timotei of…
Christianity is a religion of love and dialogue, and the Church’s unique contribution to our modern world is precisely its openness to meeting and having dialogue, Patriarch Bartholomew said in a recent interview with the Romanian outlet evz.ro. “If there is a unique and contributing element of the Orthodox Church for our time and our world,…