Today, 20 August 2011, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, visited Humor Monastery, county of Suceava. His Beatitude’s visit to Bucovina began yesterday evening. On this occasion, Sunday, 21 August 2011, His Beatitude will consecrate the church of the “Birth of the Mother of God”, in the city of Gura Humorului, county of Suceava.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, accompanied by His Eminence Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldova and Bucovina and by His Grace Ioachim Bacauanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Roman and Bacau were met in the morning by His Eminence Pimen, Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti and by the community of Humor Monastery, as Lucian Ducan, correspondent of Trinitas Radio Station informs us.

Thanksgiving prayers were said in the church monastery, and then His Eminence Pimen thanked His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel for his presence in Bucovina these days and presented the stage of the renovation works at Humor Monastery: “As you can see, the smoked parts are being cleaned and the plaster renewed, with much effort of the monastery. First of all we thought to protect these works of art, these holy icons, and build a wooden church in the precincts of the monastery to celebrate the religious services there in winter time in order to avoid condensation. The renovation works of the church inside the precincts of the monastery were done only with the efforts of the Archdiocese and of the holy monastery”, said His Eminence Pimen. There followed the speech of His Beatitude Daniel who appreciated the efforts the community of Humor monastery made to renovate the painting. His Beatitude has also made a comparison between the renovation of the painting and the man’s spiritual cleaning: “There is a connection between the renovation of the church painting and the man’s spiritual renewal through the tears of repentance, the good beginning in life and the light gathered in the soul during the prayer, the reading of the Holy Scriptures, of the saints’ writings, of the saints’ lives as well as through the good deeds done. This holy work of painting is not only an ornament, but first of all a confession of faith, an urge to prayer and to holy life. The saints in the icons are our teachers, but mostly those who pray for us”, said His Beatitude.

To end with, the other buildings in the precincts of Humor Monastery were also visited.