Today, 1 April, the Great Myrrh was consecrated, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, within the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, united with the Vespers. The Divine Liturgy and the consecration of the Great Myrrh were celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with the hierarchs of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.


To end with the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude, the Patriarch, thanked all those who contributed to the preparation and consecration of the Great Myrrh. His Beatitude has also spoken about the usage and significance of the Holy Great Myrrh: “The Holy Great Myrrh will be used for anointing the baptised ones, for the consecrating the churches and the antimises. We remember now mostly those who contributed to the achievement of this holy great work. As already said several times on radio or television and in our church publications, this Holy Great Myrrh contains a lot of spices: thirty-eight plants of various essences, with different flavours were boiled in olive oil and white wine. The wine was provided by the Archdiocese of Tomis, and the olive oil by His Grace Siluan of Italy, who is present here together with the employer who has the purest and most natural production of olive oil, namely neither the olive trees nor the oil has been treated with chemical products, so that they are pure natural. This oil is produced by cold pressing and is called “extra-virgin”, and so, very pure. Besides this pure olive oil from Italy that Mr. Timo di Sabato, present here, offered with much Christian love, we also had the olive oil provided by His Eminence Metropolitan Dionisios of Corinth, from Greece. Just because we received oil from two providers, we used first oil from Italy, from our eparchy over there, and then we added olive oil from Greece. So, we have Greek-Roman, Greek-Latin oil for the Romanian Patriarchate, because the Romanian Orthodox Church belongs to the Eastern faith and speaks a Latin language. So, we made a synthesis of the oil used for the Great Myrrh, just as we are a synthesis and a vocation of unity, of rapprochement, between the Christians both from the East and from the West.

The Patriarch of Romania explained the symbolism of the Holy Great Myrrh: “It is called the Great Myrrh. “Hrisma” in the Greek language is the Great Myrrh, so that we see the relationship between “Hrisma” and Christ. So, He is the anointed one of God-the-Father through the work of the Holy Spirit so that the whole of the saving work should be a work of re-establishing the communion of the Holy Trinity with the humans and of the humans with God. This is why we are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and anointed with the seal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to be dwelling place of the Holy Trinity as the prayers for consecrating the Great Myrrh say.

The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church emphasized the fact that we have a tradition of the consecration of the Myrrh here, in the Romanian territory: “As already said, in this Cathedral, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Dositei himself consecrated the Great Myrrh at the beginning of the 18th century, in the presence of the prince martyr Constantin Brancoveanu.

So, we have a tradition of the consecration of the Myrrh in the Romanian territory, either by the Patriarch whom we helped as a proof of gratitude for giving us this great gift that is the Holy Great Myrrh, or by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church since we have been an Autocephalous Church. It is a great work, a holy event and somebody told us now, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, that it would be nice that the next time we consecrate the Great Myrrh to do it in the new Cathedral. We may consecrate both the Holy Great Myrrh and the Cathedral at the same time. So help us God!

To end with his sermon, His Beatitude thanked God for this blessed day and then every eparchy received an amphora of the Holy Great Myrrh. “Now a deacon will read the order or diptychs of our Eparchies and a hierarch from every Eparchy – and in case the local hierarch is not present, the Assistant Bishop or the Assistant Hierarch must be – will receive an amphora of the Holy Great Myrrh. The amphoras are made of silvered stainless metal, with the arms of the Patriarchate printed on it, as well as with the name of every Eparchy. These amphoras are 5 litres big and will be carried in procession on the left arm near the heart, so that the right hand should be free for blessing. After we have taken a photo on the steps in front of the Cathedral as a remembrance of this blessed day, we will go the Patriarchal Cathedral and then they will be transported to the Eparchies represented here, to the Romanian Orthodox Eparchies in the country and abroad. May God help us that the joy of the consecration of the Great Myrrh should be a joy for all the Romanian Orthodox faithful from the country and abroad and let us glorify God with this blessing coming through the Holy Great Myrrh for His love for us” – informs Trinitas Radio station.