Floriile - Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest

Procesiune impresionantă pe străzile Capitalei, cu ocazia sărbătorii Floriilor. Mii de credincioşi, alături de un sobor de preoţi au participat la evenimentul religios ce marchează Intrarea Domnului în Ierusalim. Procesiunea de Florii a avut ca punct de pornire Mănăstirea Radu Vodă şi s-a încheiat la Catedrala Patriarhală. Tot astăzi, credincioşii catolici se pregătesc pentru Noaptea de Înviere. La Catedrala Sf.Iosif din Bucureşti, liturghia va începe la ora 23.00, în prezenţa Arhiepiscopului Mitropolit, Ioan Robu. 

Over 4,000 people participated on Saturday in the Capital at the Palm Sunday pilgrimage, during which His Beatitude Daniel has transmitted them that after the celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, there is another kind of fasting, of the memory of His Passions and of preparing for the Resurrection.

The procession took place, as every year, from the Radu Voda Monastery to the Palace of the Patriarchate, with the participation of 800 priests in Bucharest and Ilfov County, who led the convoy of thousands of pilgrims.

The large icon of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, carried in the procession and made each year by a different church, was made this year by the places of worship in the 6^th district, being edged with white freesias.

At the Palace of the Patriarchate, the thousands of participants in the procession have been greeted by Patriarch Daniel, who, after the speeches of other senior clerics, addressed the crowd referring to the importance of the Palm Sunday, the celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

Same as in Bucharest, the Palm Sunday pilgrimages were organized in the Romanian Orthodox Church dioceses and Metropolitan churches across the country and abroad.

In Bucharest, the Palm Sunday pilgrimage was banned by the communist regime in 1948 and resumed in 2008 at the initiative and with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

Also on Sunday, about one million Catholics in Romania celebrate Easter, the largest communities being in Transylvania. In Bucovina there is also an important community of Polish and German Catholics.

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