His Beatitude Daniel Patriarch of Romania awarded the Patriarch of Jerusalem the “St. John Jacob of Neamț, the New Chozebite” Order during a ceremony on December 22, 2021. The Order was brought to Jerusalem by the representative of the Romanian Orthodox Church to the Holy Land, Archim. Teofil Anăstăsoaie.
The Romanian Patriarchate’s order was bestowed to Patriarch Theophilos on January 3, 2022, by Fr Ioan Meiu, who serves at the Romanian Settlement in Jerusalem.
The award was approved by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the context of the year 2021, declared by the Romanian Patriarchate as the Solemn Year of the pastoral care of Romanians outside Romania.
St. John Jacob of Neamț is one of the three patron saints of the Romanians outside Romania for having lived in the Holy Land’s Chozeba Desert, where his relics have remained.
During his visit to Bucharest in 2018, Patriarch Theophilos offered a particle of the saint’s relics and a fragment of his epitrachelion for Romania’s National Cathedral.
The “St. John Jacob of Neamț, the New Chozebite” Order was established by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in its working meeting on December 16, 2021.
It is especially destined to Orthodox Christian writers, librarians and monastics with outstanding life, as well as to supporters of pilgrimages and monastic life and to promoters of Orthodox Christian literature.
Among the recipients of the Order were His Grace Bishop Qais of Erzurum (Antioch Patriarchate), clerics and laypeople – journalists at the BASILICA Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate, from the public radio and the public television and from the independent magazine Lumea credinței (“The World of Faith”).
In their activity, they all promoted the message of the Solemn Year 2021, a message of unity in faith for Romanians from all over the world.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Patriarchate / Facebook
