On Sunday 30th October 2011, in the city of Alba Iulia in Romania, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa and His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, conducted a Patriarchal con-celebration.
Many Hierarchs of the Romanian Church participated in the Eucharistic gathering which took place in the beautiful Cathedral in the city, and many thousands of faithful filled the grounds of the Church.
Also, on an outside podium the ceremony of the sanctification took place of Saint Hierarch Simion Stefan, Metropolitan of Transylvania. Regarding the significance of this event, His Beatitude Daniel, and His Eminence Archbishop Irenaios of Alba Iulia spoke, while His beatitude expressed the joy of the Christian faithful on this ecclesiastical event, at the same time praising the unshakable faith of the Romanian people. He then donated a two and three-branched candle stick to the Church and a Hierarchal pectoral Cross to His Eminence Archbishop Irenaios.
The inauguration of the “Saint Simion Stefan Hall” then followed at the adjacent Diocese and then the Archbishop of Alba Iulia hosted an official lunch in honour of the two Primates, during which His Beatitude Daniel of Romania spoke at length about the Hieromartyr Kyillos Loukaris, Patriarch of Alexandria and then of Constantinople, who already from 1594 had undertaken journeys as Chancellor then of the Alexandrian Patriarchate, travelling through and gaining strength from the Romanian lands, supported by the Sovereign Jeremiah Moggila for protection from the Jesuits of the orthodox. This support facilitated the multifaceted work of Kyrillos Loukaris in Poland, where he set up a printing press, issued books and reorganised the Orthodox Academy in Vilna.
Also, during his return from his second journey to Poland in 1601, Kyrillos Loukaros was hosted by Jermiah Moggila in Iasio, where in September of the same year he was informed of his election as patriarch of Alexandria (1601-1620).
In the summer of 1613, accompanied by the one who was to become his successor, Metrophanes Kritopoulos, Kyrillos Loukaris was in Vlahia, having been invited by Sovereign Radu Mihnea, where for two years he journeyed ceaselessly in the Danube areas fighting against the Lutheran and Calvinistic perceptions through talks and preaching, illuminating the Romanian flock at the same time with the dogmatic modification of the Orthodox against the Romans.
