On the just past feast of St. Great Martyr John the New of Suceava, at the time of the apollos of the Archpastoral liturgy, in the liturgical shrine of the saint, because, „especially before the holy relics we feel what holiness means for the time of history”, it was also the time of letting him travel the world and comfort and guide and heal by the grace of prayer the The Life and the Acatist of St. Great Martyr John the New from Suceava, text diortosit by His Eminence Archbishop Calinic, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuților.
Diortosirea means „bringing the biblical, liturgical or patristic text”, as His Eminence Bartolomeu Anania said at the launch of the diorthotyped Septuagint version of Holy Scripture, which he himself had written and annotated, „at the present age of the Romanian language, in accordance, on the one hand, with the Romanian ecclesiastical tradition and, on the other, with the aspirations of the new generations”. Because, when we speak of worship, we understand that there is „a profound dichotomy between worship and culture, for worship means cultivating the relationship of people with God the Creator, and culture means cultivating the relationship of people with the world, with God's creation”.( PF Daniel, Word before the Liturgy of the Liturgy including Vespers, the Liturgy of the Divine Liturgies of Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian (of the previously consecrated Offerings), the ordinance of Holy Communion and other necessary prayers, Publishing House of the Orthodox Biblical and Mission Institute, Bucharest, 2012)
„The ”straightening„ of the church service books at intervals reveals itself to be a liturgical, missionary and catechetical necessity, an anchoring in contemporaneity. A contemporaneity that resonates with the spiritual and spiritual growth of each one of us. And the justification for such a rectification, emphasized the Father of the Holy Scriptures (2002), comes from the reality that, ”in defining its being, the Romanian language has retained a certain conservative instinct, which has not, however, denied it evolution. It is something similar to tradition that renews itself from its own substance".
In reviewing the diorthodox text of The Life and Homage of St. Great Martyr John the New from Suceava (Crimca Publishing House, Suceava, 2021), Father Archdeacon Prof. Dr. Vasile Demciuc assures us that „it is evident a solid hagiographical, theological, patristic argumentation - specific, moreover, the writings of His Most Reverend Father Archbishop. It is a book that should be in the home of every Christian because in its pages we find admirable thoughts on the Christian faith, on the value and power of prayer. These pages, written in an informed way, urge us to follow the model of being a Christian”. And also from the words of the father I also noted that „it is a small homage to the time of history, because everything that happens enters history”.”
Like the translation, the diorthorthorization involves simultaneous work on four levels: lexicon, syntax, orthography, style, and in the present edition „we understand and recognize the beauty of the Romanian language, its accuracy, which expresses in a special form the beauty of the Orthodox faith”. (Archbishop Prof. Dr. Vasile Demciuc) Moreover, it has been pointed out that diortosirea presupposes a quiet courage, which must always be tempered by humility and prayer. Humility that comes from the awareness of one's own limitations in relation to the depth of the sacred text and means to write, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite again and again, and to place in the most appropriate words teachings of those which bring the soul closer to Heaven and teach it growth and perfection. And prayer as a promise-letter and uninterrupted utterance of thought that would find fulfillment in the illumination of your work in the language of your contemporaries.
With the joy of the re-confirmations is the prayer in the hymn of the akathist! In a metaphorical logic of chronological and profound evocation, in an erudite and elevated language, with ample phrasing, which knows how to ascend the soul in volutes of humility and repentance and prayer towards Heaven. And every icos - an open and endless closing in words, which seem to carry in them pieces of immensity, of teachings of faith and repeated confessions like those on the lip of the redeeming font: „Rejoice, that by the Mystery of Baptism you have made yourself a God-bearer” (1st Icosis); „Rejoice, that you have not in any way separated yourself from Christ the Lord” (2nd Icosis); „Rejoice, that to inherit heaven you have received all things” (3rd Icosis); „Rejoice, that the new man has been made new through the Cross” (4th Icosis); „Rejoice, that in your martyrdom you have confessed Christ” (5th Icosis); „Rejoice, that you have made your dwelling in the heavenly places” (7th Icosis); „Rejoice, that you have made yourself a mediator before the Trinity for all” (8th Icosis).
And every condescension - a pledge of consecration through perfect and perfect love of God and of mankind and of the ancestral country! „Wonder of angels and of men you have become, marvel of angels and of men, martyr of Christ, for being dragged through the streets of the White City tied to a wild horse, your body was crushed by the sharp stones, but you, Holy John, being strengthened with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with greater courage you sang to God: Praise!” (6th Canticle); „But the Lord, in the darkness of the night, glorified you in a marvelous way, for near your relics a pillar of fire to the heavens was revealed, high flaming torches were kindled round about, and angels in shining garments came to incense your body.” (7th Condacle); „Having heard of the multitude of your miracles, Joseph I Musat, the metropolitan, and Alexander the Good, the lord of Moldavia, with great labor endeavored to bring your body to the city of Suceava.” (8th Condacle).
The hymnography of the Most Reverend Father is no stranger to the hymnography of the Most Reverend Father, neither the recital of the graced deeds of the rulers and metropolitans of our nation before the Heavenly Throne, nor the numbering of the years in the glory of His chosen ones. To the eighth chcondacle the following joins, in a grateful and dutiful and rightful evocation of golden times clarified in the fire of confessing faith, from the „dawn of the day” of our Church justly just. „When the times were perishing and the city of Suceava was desolate, Metropolitan Dosoftei was carried away in his wanderings, together with your relics and the treasure of the Metropolitanate to Zolkiewul Polonia” (9th Condacle); until „Your pilgrimage came to an end, long-suffering Joane, after almost a century, for, through the perseverance of the worthy Bishop Dositei Herescu of Rădăuților, you returned home to the Emperor of Vienna.” (10th Condacle).
Throughout the text, the topicality is like an interweaving of all-embracing spirit and lived revelation of truth. For example, „Righteous in confessing the divinity, you outdid Reiz in teaching, who, not wishing to be ashamed, like a salesman, gave you up like a salesman to perdition, and lied deceitfully to the Bishop of the White City that you would embrace his pagan faith, when you, to God, were unceasingly singing to Him in truth: Praise!” (Cond 4). Or, in another place, „Thanking God that you have been granted to bear the wounds of the Savior Christ, whose cross you took up and followed, and have become partaker of the gifts of God's bounties through your many and manifold sufferings. (Cond 5).
A text diortotyzed with the letters of prayer. Because, isn't it, how else can one write prayers for the sacrifice of a chosen earthly being become prayer?
Most probably, in time, at another age of the Romanian language, the need for a new diortization will be felt. Until then, however, I think that as long as we are „present” in the prayer of these acathist tabs, it is as if we were reading in a breath of icos and condac, full of grace, and the golden tabs of the synox.
As for my attempt to open your hearts to have each one of you such a book of worship in his house, as we were well instructed by Fr. Second Book of Maccabees(...) and I will end the word here. And if it be well done, and if it be good and right, this have I also willed: but if it be with flaws and in the middle, I have done all that I could.„ (chapter 15, verses 37-38)
Daniela Ceredeev, school inspector
