More than 350,000 Orthodox Romanians commemorate St Parascheva in Iași

On 14 October 2024, more than forty thousand Orthodox Christians from Romania and pilgrims from other countries gathered at the St Parascheva Cathedral in Iași to participate in the liturgy, reports the Romanian news portal News.ro.

The service, attended by 25 hierarchs from the Romanian Patriarchate and other Local Churches, was led by Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Several screens were installed in the central part of Iași, where people could watch the live broadcast of the service.

The liturgy was attended by the Prime Minister of Romania, the President of the Senate of Romania, numerous officials and several presidential candidates. Leaders of political parties also participated in the service, standing not on the special platform set up for officials but among the worshippers.

According to News.ro, the relics of the pious Saint Parascheva were taken out of the cathedral for veneration and brought back in on Sunday evening. As reported by the Romanian Gendarmerie, more than 260,000 pilgrims have prayed before the relics so far, with a total of 350,000 people participating in all religious events.

Media outlets note that at one point, over 50,000 people were in the queue simultaneously, with a waiting time of about 20 hours.

As earlier reported, from August 26 to 28, youth from the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Eparchy participated in the annual gathering of Orthodox youth held in the city of Iași.