During his speech on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel announced that the icon of Saint Joseph the Hesychast will be included in the iconographic program of Romania’s National Cathedral.

The mosaic icon of St Joseph the Hesychast will be created following the request of Vatopedi Monastery.

“Recently, we received the request from Vatopedi Monastery to depict the portrait of Saint Joseph the Hesychast in the National Cathedral, who truly was a holy man.”

“We told abbot Ephrem of Vatopedi that we first have to add this saint to our calendar and then paint him in the cathedral.”

“Generally, we only paint the saints who the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church recognizes. Indeed, we will introduce him to the calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Recently, Abbot Ephrem of Vatopedi sent us the icon of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, which will be depicted in the National Cathedral,” the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church said on March 5, 2023.

Saint Joseph the Hesychast

The Venerable Elder Joseph the Hesychast was born in 1898 on Paros Island (Cyclades Archipelago) in Greece, being baptised with the name of Francis.

Becoming a young orphan following his father’s death, the young Francis went to work in the port of Piraeus as a merchant, and then he joined the army.

After completing his military training, he met in Athens an Athonite monk from a cell in Karyes and accompanied him on his return to the Holy Mount Athos.

After many years of labour and reviving hesychasm on Mount Athos, the saint fell asleep in the Lord on August 15, 1959. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople canonised him in 2019.

Photography courtesy of asceticexperience.com

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