On Sunday, one year was marked since the enthronement of His Grace Bishop Nectarie as the first Romanian Orthodox bishop of Ireland and Iceland. The date also coincides with the hierarch’s birthday. He was born on January 11, 1980, in Vălenii de Munte, Prahova County, to his parents, Ion and Anișoara Petre. At his baptism,…
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has declared the year 2026 the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women in the Church calendar. Accordingly, we invite you to discover each month the faces of holy women—mothers, wives, nuns, and martyrs—who are models of the Christian life from all ages. Saint Emilia, mother of Saint…
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered a New Year’s message on January 1, following the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest, during a solemn ceremony marking the proclamation of 2026 as the Solemn Year of the Pastoral Care of the Christian Family and the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women of the Church calendar…
Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe on Friday conveyed condolences to the families of victims of the deadly fire at the Crans-Montana mountain resort in Switzerland, which broke out on New Year’s Eve and claimed dozens of lives. Swiss authorities have said the blaze killed at least 40 people and left 119…
Seventy-six years have passed since the discovery of the holy relics of Saint Ephraim the New at the monastery where he was martyred, near the town of Nea Makri, Greece. In 1945, the nun Makaria settled among the ruins of the former Monastery of the Annunciation, where she began rebuilding the monastic settlement in which…
Metropolitan Ioan of Banat told worshippers gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timisoara on New Year’s Eve that time is like a life lived between two verbs: “to pass” — which denotes biological ageing and the sombre perception of years slipping away — and “to come”, a verb referring to the way a person responds…
In his New Year message, Bishop Ioan Casian of Canada wrote about the idea of renewal and about the family as a place of spiritual and communal renewal. His message opens with a quotation from St Paul the Apostle: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed…
At the start of the new year 2026, Bishop Siluan of Italy delivered a pastoral message to Romanians living in Italy, urging them to value the family as “a small church” and to honour its role in preserving faith and identity in the diaspora. In his New Year message, the bishop called on the faithful…
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a meditation at the Patriarchal Cathedral on New Year’s Eve, focusing on the relationship between time and eternity in the theological thought of Saint Dumitru Stăniloae. The first major teaching, he said, is that “time has been and remains humanity’s constant and principal concern, and this sense of time flowing…
“This passage between years is also a time of watchfulness. We are not called to judge our lives with harsh severity—which leads to discouragement—but to place them before God with sincerity,” noted Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a message marking the turn of the year. “The year now drawing to a…
Following the devastating fire at the Crans-Montana ski resort in Switzerland on January 1, which claimed dozens of lives and left many more injured, Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church issued a message of condolences and prayers, expressing solidarity with the victims, their families, and all those affected by the tragedy. Swiss authorities have…
In his Christmas pastoral letter, Bishop Ioan Casian of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada has called on the faithful to live the season of the Nativity with joy, hope and renewed commitment. “Let us live this time of the Nativity of the Lord with joy and hope, with trust in God and with renewed…
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said on the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord that Christ came into the world to sanctify creation and to teach humanity, from within it, to give thanks to God for the very existence of the created universe and for human life itself. “Christ comes into the world to sanctify…
European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) and the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) have published a new annual report showing that hate crimes and violence targeting Christians remain at persistently high levels across Europe. The report finds that ideological motivations are increasingly driving such incidents, alongside religiously motivated attacks…
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said euthanasia is “one of the most delicate and complex contemporary issues our societies are called to confront,” speaking last week at an international conference held at the Phanar. The conference, titled “Good Living – Decisions at the End of Life,” took place on December 19–20 under the auspices of the…
Bishop Nectarie of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland underscored the need for inner change and the rediscovery of spiritual purity in the face of contemporary challenges in his first Christmas pastoral letter since his enthronement. “Our renewal begins today — a perpetual today — for before the Lord there is no yesterday,…
In this year’s Christmas pastoral letter, Metropolitan Serafim of Germany invites the faithful to move beyond the material comfort associated with the Nativity feast and to rediscover what he calls “the only new thing under the sun”: the humility of God who becomes Man. In the pastoral message titled “The Christian Woman in the Family,…
The Metropolis of Bessarabia has dedicated the year 2026 to Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală (1926-2005). The announcement was made on Saturday, December 13, at Durlești Monastery, which marked the patronal feast of the Apostle Andrew, according to the unrevised calendar. Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia celebrated the Divine Liturgy together with Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube and…
In a landmark year marking the Centennial of the Romanian Patriarchate, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church adopted decisions that reshaped the Church’s liturgical calendar, pastoral priorities and institutional life. From the canonisation of new saints to the consecration of the National Cathedral’s iconography and key administrative reforms, 2025 stood out as one…
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, sent an irenic letter to His Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch, wishing him good health, peace, and joy on the occasion of the Nativity of the Lord and New Year. Full text: Bucharest, Nativity of the Lord, 2025 His Holiness BARTHOLOMAIOS, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome,…