His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania has sent a message to the 31st International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality at Bose Monastery in Italy, where theologians, monastics, and scholars from various Christian traditions are gathered to reflect on “Saint Anthony the Great, the Father of Monks.”
The Romanian Patriarch emphasised that Saint Anthony remains a model of repentance, prayer, discernment, and love for God, which remains relevant today in a world marked by spiritual crises and individualism. He noted that Anthony’s withdrawal into the desert was not an escape from the world but a deepening of the struggle for purity of heart and communion with God.
Patriarch Daniel also linked the anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, 1700 years ago, with the witness of Saint Anthony, a contemporary of the council, showing how dogmatic truth becomes life through prayer, fasting, and repentance.
He further recalled that the Romanian Orthodox Church has dedicated 2025 as the Solemn Year of the Romanian Patriarchate’s Centennial and the Commemorative Year of Romanian Spiritual Fathers and Confessors of the 20th Century, drawing a parallel between their witness under communism and Saint Anthony’s enduring example of fidelity and holiness.
The Patriarch concluded by praying that the conference offer participants a spiritual encounter with Saint Anthony’s wisdom and the philokalic tradition, as a source of light and healing for today’s world.
Please find below the full text of Patriarch Daniel’s message entitled “Saint Anthony the Great, Model of Christian Spiritual Life.”
Saint Anthony the Great, Model of Christian Spiritual Life
Dear Prior Sabino Chialà,
Honourable Participants,
We received with great joy the invitation to take part in the 31st International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, organised at Bose Monastery in Italy—a space of dialogue and deepening in the spirituality of the Holy Fathers, which annually gathers theologians, monastics, and scholars from different Christian traditions to draw upon the rich philokalic heritage of the Church.
The theme of this year’s conference, “Saint Anthony the Great, the Father of Monks”, invites us to rediscover a remarkable figure of Church life, essential not only for understanding monasticism but also for grasping inner freedom as the profound vocation of every Christian.
In a world marked by spiritual crises, weakened discernment, and increasing individualism, the witness of Saint Anthony remains strikingly relevant. His example offers guidance for recovering spiritual values both personally and communally, in an order where individual identity is fulfilled in communion, and community life gives confirmation and meaning to personal work.
Saint Anthony the Great is not only a renowned ascetic of the Egyptian desert but also a true teacher of repentance and prayer, of discernment and of perfect love for God. His withdrawal into the desert was not an escape from the world but a deepening into the mystery of the purification of the heart (Matthew 5:8), where the true spiritual struggle of man takes place. In the silence of the desert, he rediscovered man’s calling to likeness with God, to holiness—through grace and repentance, purity and prayer.
This year, the Christian world commemorates 1700 years since the convening of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325), whose dogmatic creed became the cornerstone of the Church’s confession of faith. The life of Saint Anthony the Great, a contemporary of and supporter of the Nicene confession, is a concrete expression of how dogmatic truth is embodied and lived in a personal life transformed by prayer and grace, through fasting and repentance.
At the same time, in the Romanian Orthodox Church, the year 2025 has been proclaimed by the Holy Synod as the “Solemn Year of the Centennial of the Romanian Patriarchate” and the “Commemorative Year of Romanian Spiritual Fathers and Confessors of the 20th Century.”
In this dual perspective—commemorative and solemn—we find strong echoes of Saint Anthony’s spiritual heritage: fidelity in confessing the faith, the power of prayer in times of trial, freedom from selfish passions, and inner joy in difficult times.
Like Saint Anthony, Romanian spiritual fathers and confessors of the 20th century—many of whom were persecuted by the atheist communist regime—did not seek worldly glory but life in Christ, begun at Baptism, keeping in their hearts the light of Orthodoxy in times of ideological darkness.
We hope that this year’s edition of the conference at Bose Monastery will offer all participants a spiritual encounter with the wisdom of Saint Anthony the Great and of the Holy Fathers of the Church—with the spirit of philokalic life, prayer, and communion—in a world that thirsts for light and healing.
Therefore, we pray to our Lord Jesus Christ to bless this gathering through the intercessions of Saint Anthony the Great, Father of Monks, and to grant us all steadfastness in faith, inner peace, and longing for holiness, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and the salvation of our souls.
† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Photo: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu
