Tuesday, 19 July 2016, it is five years since the passing away of Father Arsenie Papacioc. On this occasion, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, celebrated today, 16 July 2016, after the Divine Liturgy, a solemn commemoration service at Saint Mary – Techirghiol Monastery, patriarchal stavropegial establishment.
At the end, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon in which he evoked the memory of Father Arsenie Papacioc.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel underlined the fact that Father Arsenie is present through what he bequeathed to the Church as inheritance, as well as through his prayers in Heaven.
Father Arsenie is present not only through his grave close to the house where he lived, took confessions and guided thousands of faithful, as well as through the spiritual inheritance bequeathed to the Church, through his many sermons. He is mysteriously present through his prayers in Heaven because those who prayed a lot here, on earth, in their earthy life, will also pray in Heaven, His Beatitude said.
Commemoration of those fallen asleep, the Patriarch of Romania also underlined, is an act of faith and a sign of our love for them.
Love expressed through prayer is stronger than grave, than the space and time that separates. This is why the prayers for those passed away are the expression of the Orthodox faith that the one who believes in Jesus Christ will be always alive. Even if his body dies he will be living with his soul the same as Jesus Christ, the Saviour Himself assures us in the Gospel according to John when He says:“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). The commemoration of those who passed away is an act of faith. We believe that the soul is immortal, because it is created in the image of the God always alive. Commemoration of those passed away is a sign of our love for them and so we show that we must love our fellow beings, not only when they are alive, but also after they died. This commemoration of the passed away is a sign of hope that they will resurrect and we will be together again, but also a sign of our communion as Church.
The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also said that Father Arsenie was a wise father, good adviser, and healer of souls.
Father Arsenie Papacioc was a good guide, a wise father, and a good adviser. He was not very strict in regard to the canons, was more tolerant, but he urged the faithful to practice merciful love: love for God shown in prayer and merciful love for our fellow beings manifested in good words, good advice, and merciful deeds. This is why he first drew either a wheat spike or a cup on a sheet of paper and then wrote “love” and the exclamation mark on the back of the sheet of paper and only afterwards he signed. He would usually offer these sheets of paper to theological students. It is the love for God and for one’s fellow beings that is essential in human’s life. He said that the human being could attain salvation in a moment only if he repents. He has also written a book entitled “Eternity in a Moment”, published in 2004. He was rather a healer of souls, of the wounds the sin made in the human’s soul, than a judge of the people’s deeds. This is why people loved him so much.
He was a man with a bright spiritualised face, full of hope, of joy, just like a foretaste of the peace and joy of the Kingdom of God shown on the faces of the humans ever since their earthly lives. On this day of commemoration we pray God to place his soul together with the saints and in the tents of the righteous. We also hope that he prays in Heaven for this monastery and for all the spiritual sons and daughters whom he advised and we are confident that he remembers in his prayers especially this community of Techirghiol Monastery which is a missionary one, with many prayers and much work in receiving the pilgrims, as well as the patients who join prayer and medical treatment here. The best way to honour those passed away, after praying for them, is to follow the example of their life so that we may also enjoy together with them the love of the Most Holy Trinity and the communion of the saints, His Beatitude concluded.
Afterwards, they all went to the grave of Father Arsenie where a Trisaghion was celebrated followed by the Memory eternal chant.
Archimandrite Arsenie Papcioc, one of the most important father confessors of the Romanian Orthodoxy, was born on 13 August 1914, in Misleanu village, Perieţi commune, Ialomiţa county. The civil name of father Arsenie was Anghel. In 1932, he graduated the school of Arts and Handicrafts in Bucharest. In 1947, he is received as “brother” at Cozia Monastery where he accomplishes several missions at Cioclovina Skete, Gorj county (1948-1949) and at Sihăstria Monastery too (1949). He was tonsured in monasticism at Antim Monastery in Bucharest (1950) and ordained priest for Slatina Monastery (26 September 1950). On 14 June 1958, he is arrested and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for “having plotted against the social order”. Thus, he passes through the prisons of Braşov, Aiud and Jilava and released in 1964. After coming out of prison he is appointed priest in Transylvania; he was abbot of Cozia Monastery for a short while, and in 1976 he becomes father confessor of Saint Mary Monastery of Techirghiol.
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