Romania’s top politicians on Monday hijacked the country’s biggest religious festival_ the annual pilgrimage to a 10th century Orthodox saint.
They joined an estimated 200,000 Romanian pilgrims who prayed at the shrine of St. Parascheva, regarded as a symbol for the poor and needy.
This year, almost all of the candidates running in the Nov.24 ballot used the event in the northeastern city of Iasi as a vote-catching exercise.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, Senate speaker Nicolae Ciuca, former NATO deputy chief, Mircea Geoana, Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union, far-right George Simion and three other hopefuls tried to boost their popularity ahead of the vote next month. .
Parascheva of the Balkans as she is known was buried in Iasi in the Metropolitan Cathedral in 1888.
Every year, hundreds of faithful Orthodox faithful from all over Romania visit her shrine in Iasi in one of the major religious events in Romania. Some 85% of Romanians are Orthodox Christians.
Even during the pandemic, tens of thousands of pilgrims came to pay commemorate her in the northeast city in October. Iasi holds two days of celebration for her life.
Parascheva was born into a rich family near Constantinople in the 10th century, but she gave up her comfortable life and embarked on an ascetic, religious life. She is considered one of the most important female saints of the different Orthodox churches in the region.
The feast was first celebrated in the city in 1955 during the communist era.
