On the occasion of his official visit to Romania this fall, Patriarch John X of Antioch and All East will also be present at the events dedicated to the 550th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Putna Monastery.
On the occasion of his official visit to Romania this fall, Patriarch John X of Antioch and All East will also be present at the events dedicated to the 550th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Putna Monastery.
The schedule of the visit is the following:
On Friday, the 23rd of September 2016, His Beatitude John X and the delegation of the Antiochian Church will arrive at Putna, where they will be accommodated for the whole duration of their visit to Bukovina.
On Saturday, the guests will visit Putna, Sucevița, Moldovița and Voroneț Monasteries.
On Sunday, the 25th of September, His Beatitude John X will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at Putna Monastery with Antiochian and Romanian hierarchs, and a synaxis of clerics.
The monastery’s “Eustatie the Protopsalter” Psaltic Group will give the liturgical answers. At the Koinonikon, while the hierarchs and other clerics partake of the Holy Communion, the “Fiii Putnei” children’s choir (“Putna’s Children”) shall offer a religious song recital. After the Divine Liturgy, the traditional vocal group “Ai lui Ștefan noi oșteni” (“Stephen’s New Soldiers”), made of students of the “Ion Nistor” High School in Vicovu de Sus, will present a specially designed artistic program dedicated to the Putna 550 anniversary.
A synaxis with Patriarch John X and the Putna monastic community will be held at 17:00. Between 2008 and 2013, Alexis Abboud and Meletius Shattahi, two monks from the Antiochian Patriarchate and disciples of Patriarch John, lived at Putna Monastery while studying Theology in Romania.
From 19:30 to 20:30, members of the Association of the Christian Orthodox Students of Romania (ASCOR) and of other local youth organizations will participate in a withdrawal with torches from the nearby Hill of the Cross. After they reach the monastery precincts, the young people will present a program of patriotic and religious songs.
On Monday morning, His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch, and his accompanying delegation will leave the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți.