The monastery „St. John the New” in Suceava dressed today, June 2, 2021, festive vestments on the occasion of the feast of its patron. The feast of St. Great Martyr John the New is a moment of great joy for the faithful of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților and beyond.
The relic in which are kept the relics of St. John the New, the most precious of Suceava, was placed, for the worship of pilgrims, in a specially prepared and decorated canopy, under the yews in the courtyard of the monastic settlement.
On this feast day for the City of Suceava, the Holy and Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom was celebrated by four hierarchs of the Romanian Orthodox Church, under the patronage of His Most Reverend Father Calinic, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuților. Other members of the assembly were the Most Reverend Father Ignatie, Bishop of Hușilor, the Most Reverend Father Nichifor Botoșăneanul, Bishop-Vicar of the Archdiocese of Iasi, and the Most Reverend Father Damaschin Dorneanul, Bishop-Vicar of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților.
During the Holy Liturgy, at the appointed time, His Eminence Calinic ordained as deacon the theologian Constantin Ciprian Blaga and as priest the deacon Dumitru Daniel Lazăr, both on behalf of the Archiepiscopal Cathedral.
The liturgical responses were given by the Mixed Choir „St. John the New” of the Archiepiscopal Cathedral.
The homily was delivered by His Eminence Ignatie, Bishop of Hușilor. His Eminence spoke about the life of the saint celebrated on this day. „The liturgical memorial of today's feast puts us in remembrance of one of the martyred martyrs of our Church - St. John the New, whose relics are for worship, for special honor, in this beautiful monastery. To be a martyr of Christ means to put nothing above Him, neither your life, nor your intellectual training, nor the social position you occupy, nor the prestige you enjoy; nothing is to be put above Christ. For Christ's martyrs, faith and love in God were the essential coordinates of their biography. (...) When he was asked to renounce the Christian faith, he had extraordinary courage, telling those present that he was a Christian and would not renounce, would not in any way renounce his greatest treasure - Christ, who was in the depths of his heart. For St. John the New, Christ was not an idea, not a mere figure, but was his very life. (...) When he had the courage to respond to those who sought to induce him to renounce Christ in all sorts of ways, his face lit up and he was full of joy and gladness, like the face of St. Archdeacon Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian Church.”
The Most Reverend Father Ignatius also spoke about the blessing of honoring the relics of St. John. „We are very dear to us the luminous faces, the serene faces that convey to us a state of calmness of soul, a state of calmness, of clarity. (...) The face of St. John the New was full of light and joy. We too are called to honor the martyr of Christ. How can we honor him better than by paying heed to his life and striving to have a pure conscience, a righteous soul nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ? (...) It is the relics of the saint that give us grace, that give us much courage and hope in a world in confusion, in a world in which values are overturned, in a world in which we are urged to abdicate the values of the Gospel.”
At the end of the Holy Mass, His Eminence Archbishop Calinic read prayers for the disentailment.
Next, the hierarch offered the diploma and medal of the commemorative year 2020 to the military priests of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților, a sign of appreciation and gratitude for their outstanding merits in promoting and supporting Christian values, family and philanthropy.
Father Archdeacon Vasile M. Demciuc, diocesan counselor in the Sector of Monuments, Patrimony and Church Architecture of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților, presented the book „The Life and the Akathist of St. Great Martyr John the New”, published this year by Crimca Publishing House, with the blessing and initiative of His Eminence the Most Reverend Father Calinic. „The book has a solid hagiographical, theological, patristic argumentation, which is typical of the writings of His All-Holiness the Most Reverend Father Calinic. In its pages we find admirable thoughts about the Christian faith, about the value and power of prayer as it was lived and then transmitted over time by St. John the New from Suceava. (...) The appearance of this diorthodox edition of the life and the akathist of St. John the New makes us understand and recognize the beauty and accuracy of the Romanian language that expresses in a special way the beauty of the Orthodox faith.”
The counselor also presented the new leaflet promoting the Church „St. George” within the Monastery of St. John the New.
In conclusion, His Eminence Archbishop Calinic delivered a word of instruction on the cult of the holy relics and on the gift that God has ordained, through the voivode Alexander the Good, to Moldavia - the relics of St. John the New. „The cult of the holy relics is an institution of Christian origin, based on the dogma of the presence of God in the life of man, but also on the work of the Holy Spirit. The cult of holy relics goes deep into the Old Testament. The Book of Genesis, chapter 50, verses 5 to 10, records the bringing of the bones of Jacob and Joseph from Egypt to Canaan; in the Book of Kings, chapter 13, verse 21, it speaks of a funeral procession which, for fear of the Moabites, threw its dead into the cave of the prophet Elisha, and the dead man rose from the dead. The cult of holy relics has nothing in common with the cult of the dead practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Holy relics are not mummifications or embalming. The incorruptibility of the bodies of the saints is a miracle of God in their lives. Who would have had the interest to mummify St. Dmitrie Basarabov, who was the village cowherd, or St. Filophteia, who was a peasant's daughter? It is hard for an unbeliever to accept the honor of holy relics. (...) The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna wrote about the martyrdom of St. Polycarp (†166): «We have gathered his bones as an odor more precious than gold and precious stones, and have placed them where they belong: here we will gather with joy, and the Spirit will give us to celebrate the day of his martyrdom, to honor his victory and to strengthen other warriors». As we venerate the relics of the saints, we honor the One through whom they sanctified their lives and their bodies, making them «temples of God». We thank God for this great gift that he has given to Moldavia through the glorious voivode Alexander the Good; we thank God also for the gift of being together again in this liturgical communion.”
His Eminence thanked the hierarchs, the priests, the priests, the faithful and all those who were involved in the organization or participated in the feast of the feast.
The faithful came in large numbers to worship at the holy relics of the great miracle-worker and swift helper. St. Great Martyr John the New protects the Land of Moldavia unceasingly, together with St. Parascheva, and is close to all those who ask for his help, offering them support and comfort.
St. John the New is also traditionally celebrated on June 24, when it is commemorated the bringing of his holy relics to the Citadel of Suceava.
The 2nd of June also remembers the miracle that St. John the New Martyr performed in 1622, when Suceava was threatened by the invasion of the Tatars. The priests wanted to take the gravestone to the fortress of Suceava to be safe, but unable to pick it up, they realized that the Saint did not want to leave and that he would perform a miracle to save the city. And so it happened, for it began to rain so fiercely that it forced the Tartars to give up their siege.
Irina Ursachi
