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Today is a great party for the entire Orthodox soul. The faithful celebrate Saint Pía Parascheva, considered the “protector of Moldova”, under the conditions imposed by the state of alert.
TO UPDATE – The gendarmes organized the buffer zones in rows, and the people next to the stage are negotiating to get in. Right next to the screens, people are very close to each other, according to him. ziaruldeiasi.ro.
The traditional pilgrimage organized since 1641 was canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The authorities have introduced a new regulation that prohibits the presence of pilgrims who do not have their domicile or residence in Iasi.
The Iasi newspaper
Santa Pía Parascheva. The coffin with the holy relics, extracted from the Metropolitan Cathedral
After a week of controversy over the opportunity of the pilgrimage as in previous years, the coffin with the relics of Santa Pía Parascheva was removed from Tuesday to Wednesday night in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi and placed in the marquee of the courtyard of the Cult place.
Holy Mass is celebrated on Wednesday morning in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iaşi, on a stage arranged on the pedestrian Ştefan cel Mare.
The council of hierarchs, priests and deacons is small. Hierarchs from abroad or other areas of the country were not invited to this event, but only from the Moldavian region.
In the area in front of this podium, chairs will be placed two meters from each other in all directions, chairs that will mark the place where the faithful will sit. Unfortunately, considering the restriction imposed at the national level, only those who reside in the city of Iasi will be able to enter this space, according to the principle of order of arrival. Also here, in these chairs in front of the podium, will be seated the approximately 50 guests of the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and Bucovina, representatives of institutions or personalities in fields such as medicine, culture or education. Those who cannot enter this perimeter will be able to see the solemn moment of Holy Mass on two large screens located on Stefan cel Mare and Sfânt Boulevard, one in front of Unirii Square, the other towards the Palace of Culture “, said Constantin Sturzu, spokesman for the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and Bucovina.
Santa Pía Parascheva. Traditions and customs
Born in Epivat, eastern Thrace, not far from Constantinople, in a good family and with faith in God, Saint Paraskeva received a chosen education and religious education.
When he was very young he entered a monastery dedicated to the Mother of God in the city of Ieracleea Pontului. She spent five years in that monastery and then went to visit the Tomb of the Lord in Jerusalem, where she remained until she was 25 years old, in a small settlement of hermit nuns in the Jordan Valley.
Saint Parascheva’s needs were many and heavy: “as a drink she used spring water, and very little; the need for bedding was filled with a mat, and the clothes were a garment, and this was very uneven, the song in her lips incessantly, the tears of love always flowed over everything, and the pinnacle of goodness, which is humble thought, encompassed all this ”(‘The life of the saints’).
From the nunnery in the Jordanian desert she returned to her places of origin, to a place called Calicratia, where she spent two years in the Church of the Holy Apostles, before moving on to the Eternals.
Long after that, after the marvelous appearance of the Saint, who asked a certain monk to transfer the body buried nearby, who could not suffer due to its impurity, the relics of Saint Pía Parascheva were found intact and incorruptible, being deposited in the Church of the Holy Apostles in the town of Epivat, for worship and veneration.
Then the holy relics of the pious Parascheva were brought from Epivat to the city of Tirnova and from here they were transferred to Belgrade, and from there to Constantinople.
From Constantinople, the holy relics of the pious Parascheva reached Iasi, in 1641, when they were delivered to the lord of Moldavia, Vasile Lupu (1634-1653), in gratitude for the payment of the debts of the Patriarchate with the Turks.
Santa Pía Parascheva, popularly called Good Friday, is considered the protector of Moldova. He was canonized at the February 28, 1950 meeting of the BOR Holy Synod, when it was established that on October 14 his patron saint would be organized.
