On Monday, 10 August 2026, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrated the feast of Saint John the New of Romania at the Holy Monastery of Chozeva.
On this day, the whole Church, and particularly the Church of Jerusalem, recalls the fact that Saint John the New came from his homeland to the Holy Land and lived in the monasteries of the desert of the Jordan in holiness and extreme asceticism, in prayer and fasting. He received pilgrims from Romania and Greece for confession and spiritual guidance, sending letters and composing works of great spiritual edification, most of which were translated into the Greek language. He accepted from the Patriarchate the order of the priesthood and spent most of his life at the Holy Monastery of Chozeva, where he also reposed. God deemed him worthy of the gift of foreknowledge, and moreover of the incorruption of his venerable relics, which are preserved at the Monastery of his repentance. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem entered him into its calendar of Saints in the year 2016.
In his honour, Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos presided over the all-night vigil, being addressed by the Hegume and restorer of the Monastery, Archimandrite Constantine, as follows:
“Wondrous is God in His Saints.”
“Most Blessed Father and Master,
Today, as a full decade has already been completed since the official inclusion of our Venerable and God-bearing Father John the New of Chozeva in the hagiological rolls of our Most Holy Church, we stand here filled with spiritual gladness and exultation!
This very Venerable John, who shone forth in the desert of Chozeva like a fragrant lily of asceticism, commenting in his poems (Penitential Verses to Saint Nicodemus, Skete of Saint Anne of Chozeva, 1955) upon the official proclamation of the holiness of Saint Nicodemus of Mount Athos, engraved the eternal truth of Orthodoxy indelibly:
‘The canonisation of a Saint … is a sign that the Grace of the Holy Spirit has not departed from our Church…
In these years of spiritual paralysis and general indifference, our Holy Orthodox Church (however persecuted and deprived she may be) does not cease to pour forth her Grace upon the devout and those adorned with good works. To these, our Holy Church grants the crown of holiness, numbering them among her first-born sons…’.
Borrowing the words which the Venerable John the New of Chozeva himself wrote in the aforementioned poem concerning Saint Nicodemus, we reverently turn them today towards his most holy person:
‘Now the whole race of Christians rejoices, and the Holy Church dances for joy, honouring her ascetic, the chosen one of monasticism… The fact that the Holy Light descends upon our Church and that Saints spring forth in the spiritual garden of Orthodoxy signifies that God is with us, and that the truth of our Holy Faith shines more brightly than the sun unto victory [for us Christians]. Let us glorify God, for the succession of Saints and Venerable Fathers has never ceased, those who walk the narrow way of the Cross and raise up to heaven the offering of their ascetic struggles!’.”
Together with the Patriarch concelebrated the Elder Chief Secretary, His Eminence Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Abbot and restorer of the Holy Monastery, Archimandrite Fr Constantine, the Chozebite Archimandrite Fr Chrysogonos, together with the visiting Archimandrite Fr Panteleimon of the Church of Poland, and Hierodeacon Prodromos. The services were chanted in the Byzantine style by a choir of accomplished chanters, whom Fr Constantine had invited, in the presence of the faithful who had overcome the difficulties of access imposed by the Israeli army. To these people the Patriarch proclaimed the word of God, as follows:
“The Lord has magnified His holy ones that are in His land; He has fulfilled all His desires in them” (Psalm 15:3), the hymnographer proclaims.
“Beloved in Christ, Holy Fathers and Brethren,
Devout Christians and pilgrims,
The Grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us all in this sacred shrine of Chozeva, ‘by the brook Chorath, before Jordan’ (3 Kings 17:3–4), that we might celebrate the venerable memory of our Venerable Father John the New, of Romania.
Truly, the Lord has magnified, that is, the Lord has wrought wonders in the Venerable John through His love, making him wondrous in virtue. ‘He has fulfilled all His desires in him.’ All the commandments of the Lord, through which the righteous are made radiant, were present in him, as the Great Athanasius also interprets, saying: ‘The desires of God are the virtues according to their kind, which God makes wondrous in His Saints, since they possess more of these things than other men in the working of virtue.’
The working of virtue in our God-inspired John is most manifest in his holy and fragrant incorrupt relic, which lies before our eyes.”
“It is necessary to know,” says Saint John of Damascus, “that all powers, whether cognitive, vital, natural or artistic, are called energies; for energy is the natural power and movement of each essence; and again, energy is the natural movement innate to every essence. Hence it is evident that, where the essence is the same, the energy is the same; whereas where the natures are different, the energies are also different. For it is impossible for an essence to be devoid of natural energy… Energy is the natural power and movement of each essence, without which only that which does not exist is devoid thereof.”
The energy, therefore, which overshadowed the God-minded John is none other than the energy of the unapproachable Light, which proceeds from the uncreated essence of God, enlightening the mind and heart of His Saints and righteous ones, as Saint John of Damascus says again: “The Master Christ has given us the holy relics as saving fountains, which in manifold ways pour forth benefactions and gush forth with fragrant myrrh.”
The divine Paul, speaking about the purpose and the diversity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, says: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4); “but the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11).
Let us also hear the Great Father of the Church, Saint Athanasius, saying: “For as many as bear the Spirit of God bear light; and those who bear light are clothed with Christ; and those who are clothed with Christ have put on the Father. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality”; for those who bear the Spirit of God bear incorruption. And incorruption is God.
This very putting on of incorruption and immortality is proclaimed and manifested through his incorruptible tabernacle by our Venerable Father John, who thus became a partaker of the sufferings and glory of Christ, and likewise of those of our Venerable Fathers and God-bearing ascetics, who were exercised in the more prolonged and more arduous martyrdom of their conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12).
The Holy Church of Orthodox Christians, and particularly the Church of Jerusalem, offers glory and thanksgiving to the Holy Triune God, for He has granted us the Venerable John, a shoot of Romania, together with George and John of Chozeva, as well as a multitude of holy martyrs of the love of Christ.
These Saints and Venerable Fathers, being enrolled in the heavenly Church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23), constitute ever-shining luminaries of the truth and light which are in Christ. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), says the Lord.
Let us, therefore, contemplating the life and conduct of all these Saints, as Saint John of Damascus exhorts us, emulate their faith, love, hope, zeal, life, steadfastness in sufferings, and endurance unto blood, that we too may become partakers with them of the crowns of glory.
“And may the Lord, through the intercessions of our Most Blessed Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and through the supplications of our Venerable Father John, direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ” (cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:5).
Many blessed and peaceful returns. Amen.”
Upon the conclusion of the service at the break of day, a meal was served for the Patriarch and His Entourage, who blessed the small yet living coenobitic brotherhood.
Source: Patriarchate of Jerusalem
