The Feast of St. Prokopios, the Patron Saint of Tirana, celebrated with Joy in the Church holding His Name.
The church of St. Prokopios, which was inaugurated in 1945 in order to substitute the old church of the 17th century, which was destroyed leaving its place to the new boulevard to be built, rose on the hills of the Lake Park in Tirana and was later destroyed by the communist regime. Not only was it destroyed, but it was also transformed and partly turned into a pub until the beginning of the 90s. After the fall of communism, the mentality that was instilled into people’s minds could not be easily altered. So, the state would disagree to rebuild the church. Due to several protests from the believers and the persistence of the Orthodox community, the church was finally returned to the orthodox believers. Since there was no permission to rebuild the church at first, it underwent a partial reconstruction of the remaining part of it. But there was a constant will on the part of believers for the church to be built.
St. Prokopios is the Patron Saint of the capital city of Albania and for this reason His feast day, that is the 8th of July, is always celebrated with special honor. This year, in spite of the heatwave and the extreme temperatures, lots of faithful participated in the church services of this day and especially in the traditional litany of the icon. This year the faithful came to church with much more enthusiasm given the restrictions imposed on them during the previous year due to the pandemics. The sequence of services started with the panegyric vespers on the evening of the 7th of July. The following morning, the Divine Liturgy was headed by Archbishop Anastasios who co-celebrated together with His Grace Nathaneil, the Metropolitan of Amantia and other clergy from Tirana.
Fr. Ilia Mazniku, the priest of St. Prokopios’ Church, talked about the life of saint Prokopios. At the end of the liturgy, Archbishop Anastasios addressed the faithful mentioning that he remembered with nostalgia the year 1992, which was twenty-nine years ago, when they celebrated the first Liturgy in that place. Of course this happened after a prior demonstration of the youth who had marched from the church of Annunciation towards St. Prokopios’ church which served as a restaurant at that time. It had been a real struggle to get that holy place back, Archbishop Anastasios highlighted.
Then he continued,” It was like searching for a miracle to happen. But our God is the God of miracles and surprises. And in the end, we managed to convince also the people who were employed in this place that they weren’t going to lose their jobs. Finally, the state agreed to give us back our Church.
Now, as you have probably heard, another great step has lately been taken, glory to God. The Municipality and the respective state bodies agreed to give us the permission for building the rest of the church as it used to be originally. Although we cannot make it larger, given the construction restrictions in the Lake park, we can make it taller and definitely more charming. We are not going to put the façade imposed by the Italians, but it will be a contemporary new project which will suit the tradition and location.
So, let us get ready therefore, because in a very short amount of time, a lot of construction work will be taking place in this area for the church to be built. And lots of prayer and funds will be needed of course to accomplish this goal. A few donations are already made and based on these donations, we will dare to start the construction work. An orthodox faithful, who is known to me but anonymous to you, has donated a considerable amount of money. Also a wooden box has been placed in the cathedral entrance for those of you who want to donate for the construction of the church of St. Prokopios. I have personally asked all the people to contribute financially for the rebuilding of the church. Because, when the offer is done with love and faith, no matter how big or small it is, God blesses and even multiplies it. I would like to congratulate all those who have worked in this church throughout the years. You probably know how much effort father Ilia has put into it, along with the choir and the rest of the people who have worked for its maintenance and well-being.
We listened to Fr. Ilia before, who spoke to us about the personality of Saint Prokopios. And I don’t want to repeat what he said, but there is a delicate point in the life of Saint Prokopios which I would like to emphasize in particular. St. Prokopios was not born an orthodox. But through his martyrdom and death he showed to us what the image of a true orthodox Christian must be. And as you know, we venerate Him today as the patron saint of Tirana.
Occasionally, several insults and curses that I had never heard before, have reached my ears. There are people who speak rudely about the others who were not born orthodox, but were baptized in the Orthodox Church later in their life. This is a severe insult and heresy. Apostle Paul was not less orthodox just because he belonged since birth to the Pharisee sect. Plenty of our saints were not born orthodox. They became orthodox with their will through the holy baptism. And it makes no sense when some people want to proclaim themselves as more orthodox just because their grandparents were orthodox. We should face such proclamations in the proper way and neglect them.
There are also people who think that Archbishop Anastasios made a mistake when he ordained to priesthood people who were not orthodox by birth. But these people have proven to be a gift from God. These people got baptized and became members of the Orthodox Church with their own will. We should respect the choice that everybody makes in his life. And we should rejoice when we see people who make a decision with their own will to become orthodox Christians. However, let us not get into further details at this point but let us be thankful to God for bringing such people near us, who chose to become members of the Church by themselves, just like St. Prokopios did.
The issue which must be of our concern is how we are going to die…are we going to die as true authentic orthodox Christians or fake believers, as people who truly love God being ready to sacrifice and become a martyr or as people who believe only in order to fulfill their interests and live a comfortable life. The only thing that is certain is the fact that our life will come to an end one day for each of us. May our God make us worthy to have love for each other and devotion to His will so as we can accomplish it. Let us resemble our saints in their faith, braveness, holiness and great patience. Because they are the true seal of the Orthodox faith.
Also, dear brothers in Christ, please keep our clergy in your prayers so as they can walk in the path of our saints. Let us try to follow the tradition of Saint Prokopios and live according to his way of life, making more sacrifices and having more self-sacrifice, claimed Archbishop Anastasios at the end of his word.
After the liturgy, the traditional litany of St. Prokopios’s icon took place around the church where the clergy and the faithful participated.
