Orthodox news

Patriarch Daniel on Feast of St Demetrios the New: God works delicately through His Saints, but “cannot be mocked”!

During his sermon on Tuesday, Patriarch Daniel referred to two aspects of God’s presence and work in the world through Saint Demetrios the New: on the one hand, the delicacy and the miraculous help offered to the believers, on the other hand, the ‘bitter medicine’ administered to people for correction. The Patriarch of Romania highlighted…

Oct 28, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

13 years of journalism for the Church celebrated in the field, among the faithful

The Basilica Media Center of the Romanian Patriarchate celebrates its 13th anniversary on October 27, on the feast of St Demetrius the New. This celebration always finds Church journalists at work. During the religious service, from the Patriarchate Hill, or from behind the computer screens, they report their whispered, yet firm “breaking news”. Although this…

Oct 27, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

Bishop Varlaam reminds that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world

At the all-night vigil service held in honour of St. Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher, a great martyr of the 4th century, the Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop Varlaam of Ploieşti spoke about the current persecutions against Christians and stressed that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. “Usually when we talk about persecution we refer to…

Oct 27, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Relics of Saint Demetrios the New placed for veneration outside Patriarchal Cathedral for three-day celebration

Marking the beginning of a three-day celebration in honour of Bucharest’s Patron Saint, four priests led by a bishop carried the relics of Saint Demetrios the New outside the patriarchal cathedral during a small procession on Sunday morning. The reliquary was placed in a baldachin next to the cathedral where pilgrims from Bucharest are expected…

Oct 25, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Newly-discovered underwater ruins point to Christian past on Turkey’s Black Sea coast

The authorities of Ordu province, in northern Turkey, announced on Monday that experts from the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology found the ruins of a church on the bottom of Lake Gaga, submerged 15 meters below the surface. The age of these vestiges is yet to be determined. The 15-acre lake is the most important…

Oct 22, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

“Passage to the Light” | The digitized heritage of the Holy Mount Athos goes on display in Athens

An interactive digital exhibition with codices, illuminated manuscripts and objects from the heritage of the Holy Mount Athos is open for the public at the Concert Hall in Athens. The event presents the digitalization work made by the Athonite monks. The visitors can also see a day from a monk’s life – a very welcome…

Oct 22, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

The Week in Pictures: October 12 – 18, 2020

Restricted religious feasts, painful and hopeful prayer, the stillness of talking to God, the little joys of Orthodox living – all captured in coloured or cloudy photos received from all over the world by the Basilica.ro newsroom. Last week’s most-liked Instagram post: View this post on Instagram *RO: Catedrala Patriarhală din Bucureşti păstrează un dar…

Oct 21, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

Metropolitan Teofan on St Parascheva’s Feast: The pandemic challenges us to ask ourselves inevitable questions

In his homily on the feast of St Parascheva of Iaşi, Metropolitan Teofan offered some answers to the challenges of the present times. To stop the community spread of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus, Romanian authorities imposed harsh restrictions for this year’s celebrations: pilgrims from outside the city of Iași were denied access to the cathedral where…

Oct 21, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

Archbishop Calinic calls human trafficking the ‘handcuffing in which others throw the weak, killing the soul’

During his Sunday homily, the Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti referred to human trafficking, calling it ‘an outrageous sin that cries to heaven,’ adding that it leads to spiritual death. ‘Spiritual death comes too often from the handcuffing in which other people throw away the weak. They steal their identity, present and future. They rob…

Oct 20, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

European Anti-trafficking Day: The vulnerable man next to you is the priority here and now, says bishop Damaschin

European Day Against Trafficking in Human Beings is “a day of gratitude, awareness and memory,” His Grace Assistant Bishop Damaschin of Dorna said on Saturday in a message urging everyone to be more present, more attentive to what is happening to their neighbour. “We are all responsible,” he wrote. “The Church supports, in word, action…

Oct 20, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Orthodox students pray for power and strength to profess true faith at Fr Dumitru Staniloae’s tomb

Marking Father Dumitru Staniloae’s 27 year memorial anniversary, the members of the Romanian Orthodox Christian Students Association (ASCOR) gathered at Cernica Monastery ‘to pray for the rest of the soul of the reverend professor and his generation, but also to receive power and strength to profess the true faith and fulfil our role in society,…

Oct 20, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu