Orthodox Church drops plans for large celebration in eastern Romania

The Metropolitan Church of Moldova and Bucovina will no longer hold the planned week-long event celebrating Saint Parascheva. It will instead hold a service on October 14, it announced.

The celebration of Saint Parascheva usually brings tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians to Iași, in northeastern Romania, to pray at the saint's relics. It occasions the largest religious pilgrimage in the country.

The celebration was initially scheduled to take place between October 8 and October 15. It was turned into a one-day event after the National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) decided on Monday, October 5, to limit the attendance to religious events and celebrations against a growing number of Covid-19 cases.

As part of the celebration, the relics of Saint Parascheva are taken out of the Metropolitan Cathedral and placed in the courtyard for a week. The Church announced this would no longer happen as the number of coronavirus cases had been growing in Iaşi.

Romania recorded 2,958 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, October 8, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic, while the county of Iași added 157 cases.

(Photo: Mircea Florescu/ Basilica.ro)