{"id":585328,"date":"2026-08-20T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=585328"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:06:00","slug":"st-maria-brancoveanu-romanian-parish-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/st-maria-brancoveanu-romanian-parish-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest Romanian Orthodox parish in the Netherlands celebrates first feast of St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Parish of St Gregory the Theologian and St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu in Schiedam\/Rotterdam, the oldest Romanian Orthodox parish in the Netherlands, celebrated on Sunday its first summer patronal feast dedicated to St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fr Ioan Dur\u0103, the dean and parish priest, celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Following the service, a procession took place with the icon of St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu, painted by iconographer Marieta Rotariu.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a special day for the parishioners, first of all as Romanians, through the veneration of the Holy Br\u00e2ncoveanu Martyrs, and then as members of the parish, because the community\u2019s second patron saint is St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu,\u201d the parish priest told Basilica.ro.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Until last year, the community held memorial services for Princess Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu, and ten years ago it established the St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu Association of Romanian Orthodox Women.<\/p>\n

The parish has also supported cultural projects dedicated to her, including the \u2018Princess Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu\u2019 tulip<\/a>, the first Dutch tulip to bear a Romanian name.<\/p>\n

Saint\u2019s portrait featured on postage stamp<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Romfilatelia and the Romanian Post have launched a philatelic issue commemorating the canonisation of the Holy Princess Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu. Photo: Romfilatelia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elena De Chiara, Vice-President of the parish\u2019s Romanian Orthodox Women\u2019s Association, presented details concerning the philatelic issue launched by Romfilatelia<\/a> and the Romanian Post to mark the local proclamation of the canonisation of St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu.<\/p>\n

One of the postage stamps features a portrait of the saint created by iconographer Marieta Rotariu, a member of the association. The first-day cover also features the \u2018Princess Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu\u2019 tulips, a project initiated by the Romanian diaspora in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the community honoured the Holy Br\u00e2ncoveanu Martyrs with a performance of the Ballad of the Holy Br\u00e2ncoveanu Martyrs<\/a> by Dana Alexe. The celebration concluded with a reception prepared by members of the St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu Association.<\/p>\n

The Parish of St Gregory the Theologian and St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu in Schiedam\/Rotterdam was founded in January 1981 by Fr Ioan Dur\u0103.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the parish church won third prize in a competition for the most beautiful places of worship in the province of South Holland, where judges evaluated both its architecture and interior.<\/p>\n

Photo: St Gregory the Theologian and St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu parish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Parish of St Gregory the Theologian and St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu in Schiedam\/Rotterdam, the oldest Romanian Orthodox parish in the Netherlands, celebrated on Sunday its first summer patronal feast dedicated to St Maria Br\u00e2ncoveanu. Fr Ioan Dur\u0103, the dean and parish priest, celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Following the service, a procession took place with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":585067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[34736,36981,33545,7757,4794,31684,36980],"class_list":["post-585328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diaspora-en","tag-2026-holy-women","tag-brancoveanu-family-saints","tag-commemorative-year-2026","tag-patronal-feast","tag-romanian-diaspora","tag-romanians-in-the-netherlands","tag-saint-maria-brancoveanu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}