In Bucharest, a colorful crowd gathered for mass, broadcast on giant screens in front of what is now the world’s largest Orthodox cathedral. Thousands of priests, families and pilgrims – some in traditional dress, others waving Romanian or even European flags – traveled from across Romania on Sunday, October 26, to attend the blessing of the cathedral’s paintings. The event marked the permanent opening of the place of worship after 15 years of construction.

Everything about it is colossal: Reaching 127 meters, the cathedral is the tallest in the world. It can hold 5,000 worshippers inside its nave and more than 23,000 on the esplanade. It also features the largest iconostasis, eight elevators, as well as concert halls and nuclear shelters. “It’s a unique experience, one of immense joy,” exclaimed Miruna, a 16-year-old with red hair and a nose piercing, who spent seven hours on a train with a group of high school students – all volunteers in a religious youth group.

For Zenovia Frigescu, a 66-year-old local resident, it was a “historic” moment, one her ancestors “had long awaited.” The cathedral had already briefly opened for the consecration of the altar in 2018, to mark 100 years since the founding of “Greater Romania,” the name given to the country between the two world wars. This time, although finishing work remains, the Romanian Orthodox Church wanted to commemorate 100 years of the Romanian Patriarchate and 140 years of autocephaly (independence in Orthodox Christianity), in the presence of Patriarch Daniel and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.

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