Today, 17 March 2015, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church blessed the shrine in which a particle of the holy relics of Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople will be kept. The blessing service took place in the historical chapel of “Saint Great Martyr George” of the Patriarchal Residence, in the presence of His Grace Timotei, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, as well as of the members of the Standing meeting of the Eparchial Council of the Archdiocese of Bucharest.
To end with the blessing service, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said that the holy relics were discovered after 1989, at the Museum of Art of Bucharest: “These relics were given to the Patriarchate at the request of the worthy remembering Patriarch Teoctist. His Beatitude sent them to Darvari Monastery of Bucharest; some of them were laid in a shrine of relics of some other saints, while this one remained at the monastery’ disposal. We asked for these relics, because they were given from the Patriarchate, to take them in procession during this commemorative year of Saint Hierarch John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople”.
The Patriarch of Romania has also spoken about the history of this particle of the relics of Saint John Chrysostom: “The text on this silver box reads that these are the relics of Saint John Chrysostom from the Monastery of Saint Elijah the Prophet of Zitsa, Greece, as well as the year 1740. They are supposed to have been brought in 1764 by the future metropolitan of Wallahia, Dositei Filiti, who became egumen of Saint John the Great Monastery of Bucharest in 1764. It was a monastery situated on the place where the Home Savings Bank is today. The Monastery of Saint John the Great was dedicated to Zitsa Monastery of Ioannina, Greece, and this is why the egumens of this monastery were Greeks. The first of them was Dositei Filiti, of this monastery”.
From 19-22 March 2015, the shrine of the relics of Saint John Chrysostom will be taken to the Cathedral of Urziceni, for veneration, with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.
