04/09/2025
🔴 His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania has sent a message to the 31st International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality at Bose Monastery in Italy, where theologians, monastics, and scholars from various Christian traditions are gathered to reflect on “Saint Anthony the Great, the Father of Monks.”
The Romanian Patriarch emphasised that Saint Anthony remains a model of repentance, prayer, discernment, and love for God, which remains relevant today in a world marked by spiritual crises and individualism. He noted that Anthony’s withdrawal into the desert was not an escape from the world but a deepening of the struggle for purity of heart and communion with God.
Patriarch Daniel also linked the anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, 1700 years ago, with the witness of Saint Anthony, a contemporary of the council, showing how dogmatic truth becomes life through prayer, fasting, and repentance.
He further recalled that the Romanian Orthodox Church has dedicated 2025 as the Solemn Year of the Romanian Patriarchate’s Centennial and the Commemorative Year of Romanian Spiritual Fathers and Confessors of the 20th Century, drawing a parallel between their witness under communism and Saint Anthony’s enduring example of fidelity and holiness.
The Patriarch concluded by praying that the conference offer participants a spiritual encounter with Saint Anthony’s wisdom and the philokalic tradition, as a source of light and healing for today’s world.
Please find below the full text of Patriarch Daniel’s message entitled “Saint Anthony the Great, Model of Christian Spiritual Life.”
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🔗 https://tinyurl.com/y2uda75t
