Romania’s single church dedicated to St Symeon the New Theologian to hold patronal celebrations

Preparations are underway for the patronal celebrations of Romania’s single church dedicated to St Symeon the New Theologian.

Father Ioan Bârgăoanu, Dean of Onești and parish priest of the “St Symeon the New Theologian” Church, has announced the program.

The Compline and Vigil services shall be officiated on Friday evening, with liturgical responses offered by the Diaconia Choir of the Archdiocesan Cathedral in the city of Roman.

Three hierarchs will celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Saturday: His Eminence Ioachim, Archbishop of Roman and Bacău, His Grace Ignatie, Bishop of Huși, and His Grace Andrei, Bishop of Covasna and Harghita.

They will be joined in service by Archim. Benedict Sauciuc, Abbot of Neamț Monastery, Archim. Arsenie Popa, Abbot of Sihăstria Neamțului Monastery, and other abbots and abbesses, monks and nuns.

Liturgical responses will be offered by the celebrated Armonia Choir in the city of Constanța.

The liturgy will be followed by the blessing of an open-air altar placed under the protection of the three patron saints of the Romanian Patriarchate’s Solemn Year 2022: St Symeon the New Theologian, St Gregory Palamas and St Paisius Velichkovsky of Neamț.

“As parish clergy is called to officiate the Saturday Commemorations, mostly monastics will celebrate with us one millennium since St Symeon the New Theologian’s repose into the Lord,” Parish Priest Ioan Bârgăoanu remarked.

“This is wonderful. I feel like the saint wants us to (re)discover him through prayer and hesycheia,” added the Dean of Onești.

He said he could sense the saint’s help in organizing the feast: “Everybody has joyously accepted the invitation to the celebrations”.

The patronal feast of the parish will continue with the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when liturgical responses will be offered by another guest choir: Filomelos from the historical parish of Borzești.

St Symeon the New Theologian is considered as a forerunner of Hesychasm and is honoured during the Romanian Patriarchate’s Solemn Year 2022, dedicated to prayer and the three afore-mentioned Hesychast saints mentioned above.

Last month, at the initiative of the Dean of Onești, the Archdiocese of Roman and Bacău organized the International Symposium “Prayer as a Natural State of Man’s Mystery. Hesychast Experiences in the 3rd Millennium”, which marked the Solemn Year 2022 in the eparchy.