Iași, Romania, October 15, 2025
More than 30,000 faithful gathered for the Divine Liturgy yesterday for the feast of St. Parascheva of Iași, celebrated by a synaxis of 27 hierarchs from four Local Orthodox Churches. The service was held on a specially prepared podium near the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași, Romania.
Metropolitan Philotheos of Thessaloniki from the Church of Greece served as the main celebrant. Among the hierarchs present were Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral from the Serbian Orthodox Church and Bishop Qais of Erzurum from the Patriarchate of Antioch, who has participated in Romanian pilgrimages on multiple occasions. They were joined by 24 hierarchs from the Romanian Orthodox Church, reports Doxologia.
The annual pilgrimage for St. Parascheva runs from October 8-15. As of October 14, over 175,000 pilgrims had venerated the relics of St. Parascheva and St. Gregory Palamas, the latter of which traveled from Greece to Romania for the first time in history for this year’s pilgrimage.
In his homily following the Gospel reading, Met. Philotheos spoke about St. Parascheva as a living example of taking up the Cross and following Christ through ascetic struggle, prayer, and love of neighbor. He connected her path of ascetic purification with that of St. Gregory Palamas, who was sanctified through hesychastic prayer and contemplation of the Divine light, noting that both saints demonstrate that Orthodoxy is not theory but life, not philosophy but participation in the divine energies of the Holy Spirit.
During the celebration, Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina presented awards to three priestly families blessed with many children. The priests received the Cross of Holy Hierarch Dosoftei, while their wives received the Cross of Holy Hierarch Joseph the Merciful for laypeople.
The liturgical responses were sung by the choir of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași.
The relics of St. Parascheva will remain in the courtyard of the Metropolitan Cathedral through today.
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