Saint Dimitrie/Demetrius the New (or Basarabov), patron saint of Bucharest

Old icon of St. Dimitrie the New

Among the saints venerated in a special way in Romania, St Dimitrie the New of Basarabi (or, more correct, Basarabov), also known as „of Bucharest” has a special honour. He is the protector saint of Bucharest and all Wallachia.

Three stories about St. Dimitrie the New

About the life of St. Dimitrie the New there are not so many data. The Romanian „Lives of Saints” mention that he was born in Basarabov, a village in Bulgaria, not far away of the city of Russe, on the Valley of Lom River. Probably his parents were simple Wallachian (Romanian) peasants, as it mentions also the Russian Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaja Encyklopedia) He lived in the 13th century, during the second Bulgarian Empire (1187-1396). The tradition mentions that he was very faithful since his childhood, fasting and praying strongly. According to a story, during his youth, as he went to graze the sheep of his family, he accidentally stepped on a nest of some birds and killed the baby birds. He considered that as a high murder, so he decided not to put a shoe or sock for three years – even on heat or frosty times - on his left foot, the one which killed the birds.

As youth he entered a monastery near his village, and later he retired to a lonely life somewhere in the forests nearby. Finally he found as shelter a cave near the Lom River, where he lived the rest of his life. He foreknew the date of his death and he placed himself between two pillars of rock in that cave. So he gave peacefully his soul in God’s hands.

Romanian Fresco

St. Dimitrie remained unknown and after a flood happened, the waters of Lom covered his body with deposits of stones and mud. After many years, a new flood of the river climbed up to the cave and the big current took the holy relics. They remained somewhere near the water and there  were rumors that sometimes different people have seen in the night some flames – a phenomenon perceived in the Eastern Europe as a sign for a hidden treasure. Anyway the saint has shown himself to an epileptic young girl in her sleep, telling her about the place he was, and if he would be found, he will cure her. The young girl told to her parents about the dream and shortly a lot of people hearing about the dream went at the place indicated. Digging they have found the holy relics uncorrupted. The girl was suddenly healthy and the sacred body of St. Dimitrie was put in a coffin in the church of Basarabov. Here happened some other miracles, as the story tells.

Romanian new icon, usual at his feast

Another variant for St. Dimitrie’s biography was written by Paisius from Hilandar, a Bulgarian athonite monk (1722–1773) in his „Slav-Bulgarian History” (Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya, finished in 1762 in Zografu Monastery). The 9th chapter of this book is dedicated to the Bulgarian saints, and the 29th section is dedicated to Saint Dimitrie. According to this, he was a simple layman, who possessed several sheep and a small vineyard on the shore of the river, living in a hut between some rocks arranged by himself. He conducted in private life, and he died there, being buried.  Paisius suggest that Saint died in 1685 and his relics were discovered later by some persons who transferred them in Basarabovo, near Svistov, in the Diocese of Tarnovo. Paisius says also that St. Dimitrie made many miracles among the people.

Romanian icon

There is also a third legend, registered by the Russian Orthodox Encyclopedia. According to it, Saint Dimitrie was married but had no children. After his wife's death, he entered the monastery nearby and was tonsured a monk. Here he labored with great diligence, loving the vigils, fasting and prayer. Anticipating the hour of his death, he left the convent and went on the bank of the river, he laid down between two rocks, as in a tomb, and went the Lord. The story continues with the data from the first variant. The new thing brought in this variant is that St. Dimitrie was once married.

Bulgarian icon

The Romanian Synaxarion, which reproduces the first story, reports a first attempt of taking the relics from Basarabov. One of the Wallachian Voivodes (without mentioning his name) tried that. He ordered to some noblemen to go there and carry the relics in a cart. Being already in the border town Ruse, the oxes yoked to the cart didn’t want to go further. After a while, the ones being there decided to let the holy relics in God’s hands. They yoked two young and untrained bulls and to let them by themselves. The bulls brought the holy relics in the middle of the village Basarabov and stopped there, this situation being interpreted as the will of God and of the saint, not to leave the homeland.

The relics remained in the village’s church until 1774. In this year, the Russian general Petr Saltykov, after a war with the Turks, decided to take the holy relics, in order not to be desecrated by these. He intended to bring them to the kievan monastery Lavra Pecerska, but on the way, in Bucharest, the merchant Hagi Dimitrie, a macedo-Romanian (Vlach from Macedonia) convinced them to let the Saint in Wallachia, as a consolation brought to the people who suffered after the war. The general let himself convinced and took with him a hand of the saint, which is now in Lavra Pecerska. The rest of the holy relics rested since then in the metropolitan cathedral (since July 13, 1774) during the Russian occupation (1769-1774), being received by the metropolitan Gregory II of Wallachia (1760/1787). The chronicles interpreted like a miracle of St. Dimitrie the fact that the war and the plague happened then ended suddenly. Since 1792 metropolitan Filaret II (1792-1793) proclaimed St. Dimitrie Basarabov as the patron saint of Bucharest.

Older depiction of the saint

Several miracles occurred

Among the miracles, there are some stories about people trying to take fragments of the holy relics. First of one happened since the saint was still in Bulgaria. During a pilgrimage, a deacon of the metropolitan Nikifor of Tarnovo tried to take a small piece by biting them, but he remained paralyzed there and couldn’t move until he confessed his deed. The same happened with two women from Cernavoda, Aspra and Catherine who managed to build a church in honor of the Dormition of the Virgin in their town. They wanted a small piece of the relics in their church, but even if they managed somehow to „steal” a small piece, the oxes yoked at her cart did not want to go until they have put back the piece and confessed their sin.

Monastery in Basarabovo

In the same period the bishop Ioanikij of Preslav was very sick and carried by his people on a stretcher to the holy relics. After the audition of the Holy Liturgy in the church, he managed to wake alone and walk by himself and praised the Lord.

Monastery in Basarabovo

The cave of the saint at Basarabovo

Cave chapel at Basarabovo

In Bucharest, Saint Dimitrie is celebrated for other miracles. In 1815 there was another epidemic of plague and the Prince Ioan Gheorghe Caragea (1812-1818) ordained a procession with the holy relics on the streets. The plague stopped suddenly. The same happened during the big drought in 1827 and during the cholera in 1831. Another chronic disease was an angina occurred because of the swamps near the capital, started on May 1st 1870. General Dimitrie Papazoglu who wrote a history of Bucharest noted that on this occasion the procession with the holy relics started from the cathedral, led by hieromonk Ieronim and went all the town up to the „Foişor” church. After a day and a night, as much as the relics remained in this church, the mosquito clouds dissapeared and the sick people were healthy again. There is also a lithography which depicts this event, painted by G. Venrich, dedicated to the hieromonk Ieronim.

The gravure of G. Venrich

The pilgrimages as the coffin of St. Dimitrie occurred every year on October 27, the celebrating date, which was just the second day after the celebration of the most known Demetrios of Thessaloniki. During the communist times the pilgrimages were forbidden.  But even in this difficult period there were people to came and venerate the saint. 

Cathedral in Bucharest, where the relics
of St. Dimitrie are until today

A more recent miracle was recorded by Iustin Bulimar, a hieromonk who still serves at the Cathedral. He said in an interview that: „In 1989, after a service of the Holy Unction, I observed a believer that I saw many times participating in this Holy Sacrament and to the other services of the Church, who used to remain always the last in worshipping [of st. Dimitrie]. And in one day, doing as usual, he climbed to the coffin of the relics - but why was he always the last to worship? - Because he was walking with crutches - he let away his crutches, as usual, in order to can take them after prayer [my notation: the place is very narrow and anyone can walk there just leaning on therailings]. After falling to its knees, as he could make in his own way there, the miracle happened: he rose, bowed, and went down the stairs. He didn’t realize at the moment that he actually forgot his crutches and only after going down from the Patriarchat Hill [the cathedral is located on a hill] he realized the miracle happened. He turned back crying and thanking to God and to St. Dimitrie in tears”.

The latter patriarch Teoctist of Romania declared that it may be the help of the saint who didn’t allow to the communists to destroy the cathedral, as they planned, in the ’80s.

Veneration of the saint,
Bucharest, 27.10.2010

The veneration of the saint

Even venerated since centuries and proclaimed as the patron saint of Bucharest in 1792, St. Dimitrie was officially canonized only after a synodal decision in 1955, during the Patriarch Justinian Marina. As a gesture of brotherly love, on October 27, 2005, Patriarch Teoctist of Romania gave at the request of Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria an icon containing a particle of the saint’s relics, which is to be found today in the monastery of St. Dimitrie in Basarabov, located at 8-9 km from Ruse, a town on the Danube.

Older shrine of St. Dimitrie in Bucharest

Newer Shrine of the saint in Bucharest

The relics of St. Dimitrie

The relics of St. Dimitrie

Troparion  (hymn) of Saint Dimitrie the New

„The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Father Dimitrie, for you took up the cross and followed Christ.  By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away; but to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal.  Therefore your spirit, O Holy Mother Mary,  rejoices with the angels!”

ORTODOXIE, ETNICITATE, IDENTITATE EUROPEANĂ

Cartea Părintelui Doctor Mircea Cristian Pricop, „ORTODOXIE, ETNICITATE, IDENTITATE EUROPEANĂ”,  a cărei publicare o binecuvântăm cu bucurie, abordează un subiect de actualitate pentru teologia ortodoxă, implicând conexiuni profunde cu mai multe discipline științifice. Ea își propune în principal evidențierea și studierea binomului: neam românesc/Biserică Ortodoxă, în contextul social și mai ales religios al unei Europe postmoderne frământate de condiția sine qua non a propriei supraviețuiri: redobândirea unui ”suflet”.(…)Prin amploarea investigaţiilor, prin complexitatea temei, prin pluridisciplinaritate, precum şi prin implicaţiile practice pe care le sugerează, lucrarea reprezintă o importantă contribuţie în domeniul Teologiei Sistematice, o teză meritorie şi o mult așteptată premieră în teologia românească, pentru care merită felicitări. De aceea o recomand călduros tuturor slujitorilor și credincioșilor Bisericii străbune, doctoranzilor, masteranzilor și studenților din ţară și din străinătate, pentru ca, prin amploarea răspândirii ideilor sale, să-și capete locul cuvenit în opera de regenerare spirituală a neamului românesc și a conștiinței creștine europene, pe care s-ar putea fundamenta cândva o autentică identitate comună.

IPS. Prof. Dr. Teodosie

Arhiepiscopul Tomisului

Temelia pe care autorul o așează cu semnificația ei absolută prin valorificarea Cincizecimii în Biserica Creștină, deschide o perspectivă prin care se iluminează cuprinsul întregii lucrări și în același timp justifică aserțiunea potrivit căreia creștinismul românesc deține cheia împlinirii unor imperative, de asemenea absolute, care să aducă împreună cu ele rezolvarea celor mai urgente soluții privind destinul Europei contemporane. (…) Autorul ajunge să identifice ”principiul etnic și cel teritorial al neamului” drept ”fundament al unității Bisericii”, fiind vorba despre precizarea în context a unor idei care împărtășesc acestei teze doctorale un spor de originalitate în rândul tezelor de până acum, dar mai ales îi oferă șansa perceperii actualității cu care abordează o tematică teologică cu care se impune în literatura de specialitate. 

Pr. Prof. Dr. Ilie Moldovan

The Protection of the Most Holy Virgin, the Mother of the Lord

Romanian depiction of the Feast
Nurenberg Orthodox Cathedral, Germany

Among the eastern Feasts dedicated to the Holy Mother of God there is possible to make a distinction between the ones involving the activity of the Holy Virgin during her earthly life and her further activity among the Christian believers. In the first category we may number the event of her birth, the Presentation at the Temple, the Annunciation and the Nativity of Our Lord and, of course, the Dormition of the Holy Virgin. In the second category they may be numbered a number of miraculous apparitions of her, many miraculous healings, even a resurrection from the dead, miracles who are remembered in some hymns dedicated to her, as the Akathist Hymn and the Paraklis to the Mother of God.

The most impressive Orthodox feast in the honor of Virgin Mary from this second category is undoubtedly the Protection of the Theotokos, celebrated on the October 1st, and additionally on October 28 in the Greek Churches. Better known as the “Pokrov” in the Slavic countries, “Acoperamantul Maicii Domnului” in Romania or “Skepi” in Greece and Orient, the Feast is about a miraculous apparition of the Holy Mother of God in the byzantine church of Blachernae, but also in connection with a holy relic known as the Veil of our Lady. Furthermore, the Greek word of Skepi means both “protection” and “veil”.

The history of a miraculous apparition

The feast of the Protection is celebrated in connection with the extraordinary life of a fool-for-Christ, namely St. Andrew from Constantinople, celebrated in the very next day (October 2) after this feast. As his biographer, the priest Epihanius from the Agia Sophia Cathedral, noted, St. Andrew had a Slavic ancestry and was a slave at the court of a nobleman in Constantinople. In one night he received a divine commandment to act like a fool in oder to accomplish a special mission. St. Andrew used from this moment to live on the streets or under the roofs of the churches, together with the beggars, homeless and prostitutes, making at the first sight only silly things, but in reality having to bring back to the faith many sinners.

After some time living like a fool, Andrew becomes friend with Epiphanius, to whom he confesses his real identity, the meaning of his actions and also his visions, teaching him the real Christian way of living.

The Greek Synaxarion for the Holiday of the Protection of Our Lady states that St. Andrew together with Epiphanius participated to an all-night Vigil on October 1^st, that being between Saturday and Sunday, at the Church of Blachernae, an important place of pilgrimage in Constantinople, built arounf 450 by Emperess Pulcheria. The special prayer had as reason the endangered freedom of the city from the barbarian attack. There is no clear about the identity of them. That happened “in the days of the Emperor Leo the Wise” (that being Leo IV, 886-912). At about 4 o’clock in the night, Andrew raised his eyes to the sky and saw, together with his apprentice, that the Holy Virgin was staying there in the air, surrounded by light and praying, and her face was drowned with tears. In the vision, which was not only visible to Andrew and Epiphanius, but also to the others in the church, the Holy Virgin was surrounded by the angels, together with her St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist. Her prayer is approximately cited by the Akathist Hymn of the Protection of Theotokos. In the Synaxarion the prayer is: “Heavenly Father, receive all who glorify Thee and call Your Name in all the places. Sanctify all the places where my name is remembered and glorify the ones who are glorifying you and the ones who honor me, Your mother. Receive all their prayers and promises and deliver them from all the evils and needs!” After the completion of her prayer, she walked to the altar and continued to pray.  Shortly the danger was averted and the city was spared once more. After a while she took her veil (“omophorion”, or “mandylion”) off and spread it all over the people in the church, as a sign of protection. Then Saint Andrew turned to his disciple, Epiphanius, who was standing near him, and asked, “Do you see, brother, the Holy Theotokos, praying for all the world?” and Epiphanius answered, “Yes, Holy Father, I see it and am amazed!”

The enlarged story of the celebration

The celebrating of the Protection of the Theotokos in this day has as its reason more than this isolated event. There may be said that it is connected moreover with several miraculous savings of the city of Constantinople, endangered by some different foreign invasions. For the first time the capital of the Byzantine Empire was sieged by the Persians and Scythians in 626, during the reign of Heraclius. After a procession with the icons and with a relic of the Virgin Mary (probably the veil, because her robe, and part of her belt that had been transferred from Palestine by the order of Leo I in 473), a sudden storm dispersed the fleet of the enemy in the Golden Horn, near the Church in Blachernae and Constantinople was saved. In the honor of the event, patriarch Sergius (or, after some others, the deacon George Pisida) composed the famous Akathist Hymn.

The Arabs sieged the City in 717-718 but they lost the battle in a similar manner, and later the Rus’ people, the ancestors of the Russians, leaded by Askold and Dir in 860, after the Primary Chronicle. The Patriarch Photius and Emperor Michael leaded then an all-night vigil in the Church of Our Lady of the Blachernae. The chronicler says that “the weather was still, and the sea was calm, but a storm of wind came up, and when great waves straightway rose, confusing the boats of the godless Rus, it threw them upon the shore and broke them up, so that few escaped such destruction and returned to their native land”.  According to Nestor, the feast of the Protection celebrates the destruction of this fleet sometime in the 9^th century, which cannot be correct, since St. Andrew lived at the beginning of the 10^th century.

Anyway, according the Russian tradition there is clearly believed that the barbaric people who surrounded Constantinople in the times of St. Andrew were even the kievan Rus’. The historical facts state that in 907 the Byzantine capital was attacked by the troops of Oleg of Novgorod, who wanted special trading rights of his people with the empire. Leo fought back and the city was spared, but they attacked once more in 911, and then the treaty was signed. October the 1^st was Saturday in 907, so that the information could be certified.

Finally the protection of the Theotokos to Constantinople is connected to a potential Bulgarian invasion in 926, when the Tsar Simeon was convinced not to attack the city, after showing to him the Holy Veil.

There is interesting to note that the Holiday of the Protection started to be celebrated in the 12^th century among the Russians, people who attacked at that time the Constantinople. The celebration spread out in the whole Eastern Christianity, but until today its importance remains special in the Slavic speaking Orthodox countries.

The Relic of the Protecting Veil

The Protecting Veil seems to be an “omophorion”, similar to a neckcloth. Its form is also certified by its depiction in the icons. The Orthodox bishops wear an “omophorion” as the symbol of the fullness of hierarchic power.

The Veil of Theotokos, together with her belt and other sacred relics were brought from Palestine by the order of Emperor Leo I the Thracian (457-474) and remained since 473 in the Church of Blachernae, being popular by several miracles occurred in connection with it. A part of the Protecting Veil or maybe the whole of it was given by the Byzantine Empress Irene as a gift to the Western Emperor Charles the Great, as part of a wedding negotiation. Charles donated it to the Chartres Cathedral, where it remained until today, though some small pieces of it were spread all over the West. As an example, such of a piece is kept today in the church of St. Josaphat from Detroit, USA.The Veil continued to play a role in Byzantine history, even if rather in the ritual cult than in a physical veneration.

The relic "to be sold" on internet

Relic of the Veil in Detroit

Another venerated relic: the Belt of Theotokos

The Belt of Theotokos in Vatopedi

In the East, the veneration of Theotokos is connected also with the “Belt of Theotokos”, today kept into a small box in the monastery of Vatopedi (Mt. Athos) is made from camel hair. According to the tradition, the middle of it was sewing with gold thread by the emperess Zoe of Constantinople, who received healing from the holy belt.

The belt of Theotokos from Vatopedi

Going back, the tradition states that this belt was given in a miraculous way to St. Thomas the Apostle, who came too late to the funeral of the Holy Mother, as a sign of her ascension to heavens. First the belt remained in the Jerusalem. The Emperor Arcadius  (395-408) is the one who has taken it to Constantinople, first at the Church of the Holy Apostles, and later to Blachernae (during the reign of Emperess Pulcheria, 450-453), and it has remained here together with other relics (as told before), until the age of Justinian, when it was moved to the Hafia Sophia. As told before, Emperess Zoe, being cured by bearing this belt, have sewed it with a gold thread, and put it again in the reliquary. This event is marked in the Orthodox calendar, with the Feast of putting the Belt in the reliquary (on August 31^st). Finally it was taken from here by the Bulgarians of Ionita Caloian, after a battle lost by Alexios Angelos III (1195-1203) and finally it arrived at the monastery of  Vatopedi, being given by Lazar, the tsar of the Serbs in 1389. After that, the holy Belt was taken in longer processions during some great epidemic diseases, such as the pest in Wallachia (1813) and in the Ottoman Empire (1871), or in the modern times, in different countries, just in order to be venerated.

Western depiction in Fulda, Germany

The icon of the Holy Protection

The icon of the feast depicts the Holy Virgin standing above the faithful with her arms outstretched in prayer and draped with a veil, being surrounded by the angels and also by the twelve apostles, bishops, holy women, monks and martyrs, standing under the veil. She holds in her outstreched arms the holy veil, which symbolizes the protection of her intercession.

Under this scene, which reminds about the heavenly Church, there is the earthly church, probably Blachernae, where there is depicted a young man clothed as deacon, who bear in his left hand a scroll with the text of the Kontakion of the Nativity, which text honors the Mother of God (“Today, the Virgin gives birth to the One who is beyond the Being…”). This is St. Roman the Melodist, a hymnographer also celebrated on October 1^st. Even he is not directly connected to this feast, his story tells about the fact that he receive the charisma of writing melodies in the honor of the saints, after the Holy Mother told him in a dream to eat a scroll that she was giving to him. Doing that, he started to be inspired to write. Together with him, on the right there are Andrew and Epiphanius, and in the left there are also depicted the Emperor Leon the Wise with his emperess Zoe (who has miraculously cured from a disease – probably epilepsy - by bearing the Belt of the Theotokos) and the Patriarch of Constantinople at that time, which is probably Euthymius I (enthroned in march 907). 

Russian icon of the Feast

The Pokrov icon may well be related to the Western Virgin of Mercy image, in which the Virgin spreads wide her cloak to cover and protect a group of kneeling supplicants. This is first known from Italy at about 1280. One of these scenes is depicted in the Dome of St. Bonifacius in Fulda, Germany.

Troparion (hymn of the Feast)

“Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy illumined by your coming, O Mother of God. Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you: Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection; deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ, your Son and our God that He may save our souls”

St. Hierarch Martyr Teodosie de la Brazi, Metropolitan of Moldova

Together with St. Antim, Metropolitan of Wallachia and Constantin Brâncoveanu, Voievod of the same country, St. Teodosie. Metropolitan of Moldova complete the group of the Romanian martyr saints of the late Middle Age.

Abbot and Bishop

Saint Teodosie was born in at the beginning of the 17th century in Vrancea, a county situated on the border between Moldova and Wallachia. There was quite usual at that time that the young boy to enter the monasteries and the fact that Teodosie was a monk since his childhood is indeed not a singular case. The privilege of being tonsured so young consisted sometimes in gaining a good culture, because at that time fast all the Romanian schools were patronized by the monasteries. Because of his culture, Teodosie was appointed secretary to the office of Bogdana monastery, one of the important convents in Moldova, situated near Suceava, at that time the capital of the country. Later he was appointed abbot of the same monastery and took care of rebuilding the facilities.

In 1670 Teodosie was ordained Bishop of Radauti, and in 1671, he was transferred to Roman, where he continued his mission as spiritual father, but also church administrator.

The 17^th century was a difficult period for Moldova, who was a disputed land between the Turks and the Poles, these being in a long war between 1672 and 1676. Although keeping its autonomy, Moldova was still under ottoman rule, which imposed many times the rulers, who usually changed very often, sometimes more than once in the year.  Because of a Turkish invasion, St. Metropolitan Dosoftei (1671-1673; 1675-1686), together with Prince Ştefan Petriceicu ( Aug. 1672 – Nov. 1673; Dec. 1673 – Feb. 1674; Dec. 1683 – Mar. 1684) and an important number of Moldavian noblemen were forced to flee to Poland in 1674.  The Turks completed soon the vacuum of power, imposing a new Prince, faithful to their politics, namely Dumitraşcu Cantacuzino (Nov. 1673-Nov. 1675 and 1684-1685). The new ruler enjoyed no popularity and resisted only by being helped by the Turkish and Tartar armies stationed on the Moldavian territory, this situation being very hard for the population, because of the many abuses these used to commit. In order to legitimize the rule, Dumitrasu named a new Metropolitan in the person of Theodosie, who was forced to accept the new position. The contemporary historian Ion Neculce writes in his Chronicle of Moldova that Dumitraşcu kept the Tartars in Moldova in order to stay as much on the throne, paying a high tribute, which came from the high taxes on Moldovans and the money collected from the monasteries. This situation couldn’t be accepted any longer and “Metropolitan Teodosie went to Prince Dumitraşcu Cantacuzino saying: What are these Your Highness, are you alike the Antichrist? And the Lord became angry and took him out of the office with dishonesty”, only one year after the appointment, and banished him at St. Sava Monastery in Iasi.

Dumitraşcu lost his throne not long after. In 1675 Ştefan Petriceicu and Metropolitan Dosoftei returned from Poland, freeing Teodosie from his prison. Because there couldn’t be two metropolitans at once and a “relegation” in the hierarchical rank is not possible, Teodosie retired in his homeland, living sometimes in Focsani, an important town in the region, and sometimes at Bogdana Monastery, where he used to be abbot.

St. Teodosie depicted as Monk

Taking care for the monasteries

As a retired bishop, he used his money and influence in order to reconstruct the monastery from Brazi, where there were built a new church and cells for the monks. In order to establish a special monastic rule, Teodosie brought there Zaharia, an old abbot, who lived for a while in Mount Athos.

 In 1688, while being in Focsani, Teodosie was kidnapped by the Greek friends of the former ruler Dumitraşcu Cantacuzino and taken to Wallachia. Here he was imprisoned and tortured, being investigated for treason. He managed to escape after 10 weeks and returned to Brazi. In the next years he planned in detail the construction of another three hermitages in the region, but he didn’t manage to finish his project.

Brazi monastery at the holiday of St. Teodosie

In the fall of 1694 the Tartars came again in Moldova, causing great damages in the south of the country, destroying several churches and taking people as slaves. The old bishop Teodosie foreknew his near end and therefore prepared himself for that. Soon there came a band of Tartars at Brazi, who had tortured him and asked for the treasures of the monastery. He refused to discover them, so the Tartars beheaded him. In the following night, some Christians buried him in hurry.

Brazi Monastery

The Relics of St. Teodosie

Saint Antipas from Calapodesti (1816-1882, commemorated on 10 January), was a novice at Brazi monastery in 1842, when the relics of Metropolitan Teodosie were discovered. He wrote that “Archimandrite Dimitrie, prior to be abbot of Brazi, lived a harsh ascetical life in a big forest, were he once found by chance a pot filled with gold coins. He found a note in the pot, which said that the money belongs to Metropolitan Teodosie, who hid them there, foreseeing his martyrical death by the hands the Turks ... who would have found this money was indebted to build up a convent and three hermitages ... and at the ending of the latter hermitage, he will find also my relics”. Archimandrite Dimitrie fulfilled the last wish of Metropolitan Teodosie, and in the courtyard of the third hermitage he ordered the digging of a grave for himself.

Abbot Dimitrie wrote himself about this event, on February 20, 1842: “I have wished to make my grave in the cemetery at Brazi, justin the middle of the place where it was once the old church. And digging deep six hands [...] I have found the place where, at the legs of the deceased Metropolitan Teodosie, the founder of Brazi Monastery, there was the head of my grave. And digging up further, I have found the whole body with the bones strung and the head I found upside down, put on a big brick in croissants, as it is known that he was cut by the Tartars and buried at night by some believers”. Saint Antipas noted also that, “I myself made me worthy to see and kiss the relics, from which it came out a very fragrant perfume”.

The relics of the Saint

On May 6, 1842, the relics of St. Teodosie were placed in a new tomb, built in the northern part of the underground chapel of Brazi monastery. Later, his head was taken out from the tomb and sat in order to be worship in that chapel. Here it remained until 1959, when it was put back in the tomb, in the year when the monastery was dissolved after a communist decree.

After reopening the monastery and the restoration that followed, Abbess Justina rediscovered the relics on March 20, 2000.

The official decision of the Romanian Holy Synod of Bishops, concerning canonization of the St. Hierarch Martyr Teodosie happened during the meeting from March 4-5, 2003. The Liturgy of proclaiming the canonization took place on October 5, 2003, at Brazi monastery, in Vrancea County.

Since then, St. Teodosie from Brazi is celebrated in Romania on September 22.

The Grave of St. Teodosie, under the church

Troparion of Holy Hierarch Martyr Teodosie from Brazi

“Hierarch Teodosie, you have shown yourself as an eternal bright candlestick and a big defender of the Church of Christ. You shone through ministry and martyrdom, as a pure sacrifice, bringing yourself to the Master of all; We glorify your remembrance, asking God to bestow peace and great mercy to our souls!”

Film about the monastery at Brazi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE4AdtDvZ3I&feature=player_embedded#!

Saint Joseph the New from Partoş, the Metropolitan of Timişoara (+ 1656)

Saint Joseph the New from Partoş was born in 1568 in Raguza, in Dalmatia (today Dubrovnik, Croatia), from a Wallachian Christian family, being baptized as Jacob. His father was a Venetian named Giovanni Fusco, and his mother, Ecaterina, was originally from Limnos, a Greek island. More precisely, she had a „Morlach” ancestry, which is another name for „Mavro-Vlachos” (black Wallachian), one of the different romanic populations spread in the entire Balcanic peninsula, south form Danube.

After his father's death, the young Jacob moved with his mother in Ochrid, an important Orthodox center in the region, also populated by Aromanians and black Wallachians. Here the young boy went in a monastery school, being 12 years old. Three years later, he entered in the congregation of the monastery of Our Lady of Ochrid, and remained here about 5 years.

Athonite monk

After 5 year of apprenticeship, he went to Mount Athos, at Pantokrator Monastery and he was tonsured monk, being named Joseph.

Here in the monastery he was known as Megaloschemos Joseph the “Vlach”, which means that he has received the great monastic schema (Great Schema, in difference to the Small, consists in a new tonsure, usual received only by hermits). Here he lived for many years along with the monks, in a harsh fasting life, all-night vigil, obedience and humility. Finally, he went as hermit in the woods nearby and it is said to have the “gift of tears”, a highly prized charisma in Eastern monasticism and “the incessant prayer”, because he “lowered the mind into the heart”, that means that he united his reason with his spiritual senses. This inner union is considered in the Orthodox monasticism, particularly after Gregory Palamas and the hesychast movement, as the ideal of the human perfection.

Because of the holiness of his life, Joseph could make miracles and cured many diseases, especially those crippled. Often he was called in several monasteries, where he healed the monks from their bodily sufferings.

After a long time, the monks invited him back into the congregation and he was ordained priest and confessor of the monks of Mount Athos. Soon he became known also by the Patriarch of Constantinople who appointed him abbot of the Monastery of Saint Stephen in Adrianople, where he remained about 6 years.  Coming back in Athos, Joseph became abbot in the monastery of Koutloumousiou, one of the oldest convents, basically built from the donations of the Wallachian voivods and noblemen.

Being more than 70 years old, he retired in silence near Vatopedi monastery. But his mission still didn’t come to its end.

Metropolitan

In 1552, the western Banat, hitherto included in the Kingdom of Hungary, fell under Turkish rule, being transformed into a “pashalic” (1552-1718) based in Timişoara. In this context, it seems that there was metropolitanate in this region, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It's hard to say what nationality were the Orthodox believers in Banat. The massive Serb migration north of the Danube began after the battle of Kossovopolje, in 1389, when Serbia was occupied by the Turks. Until then there were in Banat only Romanians (Vlachs), Hungarians and Germans.

A metropolitan of Timişoara died in 1650 and Joseph the Vlach was sent in his place, despite of his age, being about 80 years old. Maybe his nationality was important in the eyes of the Orthodox believers there. In any case, his ordination took place on July 20, 1650 and he served as Metropolitan only for three years. The tradition mentions several miracles of the saint, including fighting a fire that engulfed the west side of Timişoara. Apparently Joseph came out from the church with the Sacraments in the hands and, after he had prayed with tears, God have sent a heavy rain, so that the fire stopped.

old icon of the Saint

Being practically all his life long a simple monk, he might have liked the silence of the monastery more than the service as a hierarch. In 1653, Joseph retired definitively to the not-far-away Partoş monastery, where he lived for three years. This information came from a note, made in 1655, on a Menologion (all-day service book) that belonged to the monastery of St. George situated near the city: “This book belongs to the Lord Metropolitan Joseph of Timişoara, in 1655, who voluntarily left the diocese, withdrawing at Partoş monastery, where he lived several years and then moved to the eternal life, where the saints are resting”.

According to tradition, when his passing into eternity, the monastery bells began to beat by themselves.

Saint Joseph died being over 85 years old. He was buried in the monastery’s church nave, opposite to the entrance door.

The old and the new churches of Partoş Monastery

Worship

The popular tradition recorded soon the Metropolitan Joseph as a saint. In 1749, a pilgrim named Peica offered a Gospel-book to the monastery of Partoş, just before his trip to Jerusalem. On this book he wrote: “I, the sinner servant of God Hagi (=pilgrim) Peica, offer this holy book, the so-called Gospel, to the monastery of  Partoş convent, dedicated to St Michael - where is located the body of the Saint Lord Joseph - for our good and our happy journey to the great city Jerusalem”.

In 1782, the local priest Stephen Bogoslovici painted an icon, at the request of the Archpriest Ioan Şuboni, who donated it to the monastery, in order to be placed above the saint’s grave. On the icon there were written the name of “Our Father Saint Joseph the New” and the troparion (hymn of the saint) as follows: "In youth you entirely obeyed to God in prayers and labors and in fasting, being the icon of the goodness. Therefore God, seeing your good work, has put you bishop and shepherd of His church. Wherefore, your holy body has been preserved, after death, fair and incorrupted. Saint Joseph, pray to Christ our God, to bestow forgiveness to those who remember your holy memory, with faith and love”.

According to another tradition, the daughter of Mark Mutiu, the mayor of Timişoara in the middle of the 18^th century, was cured at the monastery of a disease that she has long suffered. In gratitude, the mayor built here a new church, near the old one, where St. Joseph once officiated the Liturgy.  This church still functions until today.

 In 1929 Bizerea, a local priest wrote also based on the local tradition, that St. Joseph “already during his life enjoyed the fame of a true saint, and after his death he has left a memory of a truly saint among the religious people and the monks”.

Romanian Orthodox Cathedral
in Timişoara

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church decided soon the official proclamation of the Holy Hierarch Joseph the New. This act happened during a celebration on October 6-8, 1956, in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timişoara, where his holy relics were placed. His commemoration occurs each year on September 15, the day of his enthronization as metropolitan.  The Akathist of St. Joseph and the other Holy Services were included in the service books of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

In 1965, the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church decided the name of St. Joseph to be placed also in the church calendars from Serbia, as a witness of the worship that St. Joseph enjoyed throughout the Romanian and the Serbian parts of Banat.

Adăugaţi o legendă

The story about the firefighting remained very strong in the memory of the locals, so that, following a decision of the Romanian Ministry of Interior in 1997, Saint Joseph the New became the holy patron of the firefighters.

The Relics of the Saint

The relics and the icon of the Saint, in the Cathedral of Timişoara

The relics of the Saint

Troparion of St. Joseph the New of Partoş (after the hymn from 1782):

In youth you entirely obeyed to God in prayers and labors and in fasting. Therefore God, seeing your good work, has put you bishop and shepherd of His Church and you dwelt after your death in the heavenly hosts of the saints, o, Holy Father Joseph. Pray to Christ our God to bestow forgiveness to us,  who remember your holy memory, with faith and love!”