The Romanian Orthodox parish in Ludwigshafen, Germany, received a particle of the relics of St. Pirmin, the patron saint of Rhineland-Palatinate, brought from Innsbruck, Austria, with the assistance of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer, Dr Karl-Heinz Wiesemann.
The ceremony took place on 3 November 2022, during the Vespers service officiated by His Eminence Metropolitan Serafim of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Germany, central and northern Europe.
The Romanian Metropolitan, parish priest Constantin Prihoancă and the Orthodox community welcomed the Roman-Catholic bishop in the church’s narthex with bread and salt according to Romanian tradition.
His Eminence Metropolitan Serafim thanked Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann for the spiritual gift. Next, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer spoke about the foundations of the Christian faith.
Dean Dominik Geiger, Rev. Alban Meißner, Marion Schneid, Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Rhineland-Palatinate Parliament, and members of the Roman Catholic community in Ludwigshafen attended the ceremony.
Mihai Chirica, Mayor of Iasi, Andrei Apreotesei, manager of the National Athenaeum in Iasi, and Ion Coșer, Consul General of the Republic of Moldova in Frankfurt, also participated.
The moment was marked in the evening by a baroque music recital offered under the baton of Maestro Ionel Chiriță.
The “Holy Spirit” Roman Catholic Church hosts the Romanian Orthodox parish in Ludwigshafen. The Romanian community is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the Archangel Raphael and Saint Pirmin, the Patron saint of the Palatinate.
St Pirmin’s troparion:
The truth of things revealed you to your flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness, and a teacher of temperance. Through humility, you attained the heights; and through poverty, riches. O Father and Hierarch Pirmin, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Photography courtesy of the Romanian Orthodox Parish in Ludwigshafen
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