Cheesefare February Break

The school I teach at gave us all the week of Presidents’ Day off, so I took the opportunity to recharge my spiritual batteries before Great Lent by returning to St. Dumitru Romanian Orthodox Monastery for a few days. I had previously spent a night at the monastery (I did this last May) and the experience left such an impression on me that I knew I had to go back.

Day 1

St. Dumitru’s is roughly a 4 hour drive from my house which isn’t that bad, but I have a friend who lives at about the mid-way point who I hadn’t seen in a minute. Two birds, one stone: I pulled up to his house for the day. We tried to hit up our favorite Greek restaurant in the area, but unforunately the owner is out of town for the week. We got coffee and pastries instead and toured a local library.

I also spent some time catching up with my RPI friends. We all met up at one of their apartments and shared pizza. I then went to another friend’s house to catch up and play with his dog. He made us espresso in his $1,200 machine. It was really good. We ended the night by chanting Paraklesis to the Mother of God.

Day 2

I woke up around 6:00AM today in order to have enough time for a shower and small breakfast before I headed out to the monastery. My friend is full of philotimo and made us both amazing breakfast bagels and fresh Greek (or is it Turkish?) coffee. Even though he had work at 8:00AM, he still made time for me to do this and make sure I was all packed and ready to go. S-tier friend. The drive from Albany is actually really straight forward (literally I-87 to I-84 and then you’re basically there) and I had to make a quick stop on the highway for gas. New York rest stops brutally mog the ones we have in Massachusetts so this was more a “privilege” than a set back. It’s actually really crazy how much nicer they are, but I digress.

I pulled into the monastery at around 10:15AM and made my bed. One of priests briefly settled me in and showed me the new relic they have in the guesthouse chapel: the cover that the Miracle Working Iveron Icon had for a year and the same analogion the icon had soaked which I was able to venerate back in May (in the picture below you can see where the myrrh soaked). The monks had to do their obediences, so I was able to pray in front of the cover, do some reading, and enjoy a cup of coffee until around 4:30PM—this was actually awesome because this was the perfect excuse to finish The Soul After Death which has been collecting dust on my shelf for at least a year—when I shared a very cheesefare week meal with one of the priests I know.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of this (it would have been inappropriate to take any), but we had Vespers and an Akathist at 6:00PM. They had me read the Akathist to St. Parascheva of Iașa antiphonally with one of the brothers. After a short break, we reconvened at 8:00PM for Compline and Paraklesis to the Mother of God. Following this the abbot invited me to pray Jesus Prayer with them for an hour. It was truly heavenly.

We were finished by around 10:00PM and I could barely keep my eyes open. I brushed my teeth, said a few prayers, did some prostrations, and totally narced.

Day 3

Today is the first full day that I have ever spent at a monastery. I was justifiably pretty apprehensive, so I got to the church at around 5:50AM. It was pitch black out and there was ice everywhere, but I made it in one piece. The abbot asked me to read Matins; the First, Third, and Sixth Hours; and much of the Divine Liturgy. I made a lot of mistakes (Romanian services are arranged differently than Greek/Antiochian ones), but the brother chanting with me and I spent much of the service giggling as a result. It was really wonderful and full of peace and joy. Following this was a memorial service for the mother of parishioner who was being buried in Romania the same day. The fathers chanted the Romanian hymns angelically.

I was left alone to clean up in the church after the services today, so I had the opportunity to take some photos. Since I was last here much of the iconography has been touched up and the dome has been entirely redone. The whole church is so breathtaking.

As before, the vestments that Saints Parascheva of Iași and Dumitru the New had previously been buried in are enshrined here as well as the fragrant relics (I only know this because of the beautiful smell that met me when I venerated them) of Saint Jacob of Putna. The same priest as yesterday, as well as the women present for the memorial, and I shared another truly wonderful meal—complete with koliva, wine, and fish. Fasting food has never been so good!

I spent the rest of the afternoon going through photos, doing some more reading (the rest of The Soul After Death and, fittingly, some of Saint Sofian of Antim: The Urban Hesychast), praying in the chapel, and nursing my food coma with more coffee.

I also got to make my “visit” to Fr. Vasile Vasilachi and Vladyka Victorin. You can read about the two saintly men a little here (in Romanian) and here (a series of blog posts in English). Fr. Vasile is buried on the premises and both his and Vladyka’s vestments are on display in the guesthouse. The monks have a pious tradition of kneeling before Vladyka’s vestments, putting his omophorion over their head, and asking his blessing.

We got back together at 5:00PM (a little earlier than yesterday) for Vespers and an Akathist to St. Jacob of Putna (the same saint I discovered earlier!) We then had a “small” dinner (left overs from that amazing lunch).

Just like yesterday, we had Compline with the small canon to the Mother of God at 8:00PM, but instead of an hour of Jesus Prayer another pilgrim and I helped one of the monks string candles (this is his obedience) until 11:00PM. Another very full and very blessed day.

Day 4

According to the Typicon, Cheesefare Friday is aliturgical meaning that the Divine Liturgy is not served on this day. So unlike yesterday, we “only” prayed Lenten Matins for St. Leo Pope of Rome and were done by around 8:30AM. This was actually really serendipitous because a pretty nasty snow/freezing rain storm was rolling in and the early wrap-up gave me enough time to leave without getting into an accident. (As a matter of fact the snow mostly held off until I got home!)

The drive back itself was very chill and I had enough time to get some coffee. The Supplicatory Canon/Akathist to St. Benedict books that I typeset and printed arrived also (they came out great). If you would like a copy (or just the pdf), shoot me an email.

Tl;dr:

St. Dumitru’s Romanian Orthodox Monastery is a place where the Orthodox Faith is lived. There is earnest prayer and repentance. You will learn a great deal about the services if you get to visit, but above all you will enter into the rhythm of the Church’s heartbeat. I had the great blessing to spend three days here and I strongly recommend that you spend at least a night. I will definitely be returning for a longer stay, God willing, some time in the near future.