d. 1685 (dating contested)
A Bulgarian ascetic who lived near Ruschuk and became widely venerated in Bucharest after the translation of his relics.
Our Venerable Father Demetrius the New of Basarabov
Saint Demetrius of Basarabov, also called Demetrius the New, was a Bulgarian ascetic born into a peasant family in the village of Basarabov, south of the Danube in northeastern Bulgaria. From childhood he pursued virtue through fasting and prayer, later entering a monastery to learn obedience before withdrawing to a cave near the River Lom for solitary prayer.
By tradition he was forewarned of his death and, when the day came, lay down between two slabs of stone and reposed in peace. His remains were later found incorrupt, and after their translation to Bucharest in the second half of the 18th century he became widely venerated as the protector of that city and of Romania. He is commemorated on October 27.
The century in which he lived is editorially contested. The anchor sources and the OCA place his death in 1685 (17th century), while some accounts date his birth to the beginning of the 13th century; the Wikipedia liturgics entry records him as of the '13th century, or 1685,' reflecting the unresolved disagreement.
The patron of Bucharest, whose relics rest in the Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral; his feast is one of Romania's largest pilgrimages, when the relics are brought out and processed over several days and invoked against drought and epidemic.
By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy father Demetrius, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Saint Demetrius was born into a peasant family in Basarabov and from childhood pursued virtue through fasting and prayer. Tradition relates that while herding cattle he accidentally crushed some birds; his remorse was so intense that he vowed to go barefoot for three winters and summers as penance.
He later joined a monastery, where he learned obedience, and then withdrew to a cave near the River Lom to live in solitary prayer as an ascetic in the wilderness near Ruschuk.
According to tradition, three centuries after his death river flooding displaced his incorrupt remains. A hundred years later he is said to have appeared in a dream to a paralyzed girl, directing her to the riverbank; upon excavation his undecayed body was found and carried to Basarabov, where numerous healings were reported.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 the relics were brought toward Russia by General Saltikov but, at the request of a Romanian named Hagi-Dimitri, were left in Romania and donated to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Bucharest; one hand was sent to the Kiev Caves Lavra. The formal translation of the relics to Bucharest is dated to July 8, 1779. By the late 1700s Saint Demetrius had become the patron saint of Bucharest, and his image was incorporated into the coat of arms of the city, introduced as a symbol during the reign of Cuza in 1864.
On the night of February 16-17, 1918, Bulgarian soldiers allied with Germany during World War I broke into the cathedral and seized the coffin; the relics were recovered by German forces and returned amid great public welcome. In 2005 Patriarch Teoctist of Romania presented an icon with a relic particle to the Basarbovo Monastery in Bulgaria.
His feast on October 27 is marked in Bucharest by a three-day festival. Accounts record that the miracles attributed to him relate chiefly to the healing of the sick and to immediate help in the varied needs of the faithful.
Traditional Accounts: Among the reported miracles are the refusal of oxen to move until two sisters from Constanta returned a piece of relic they had tried to remove secretly; the 1955 healing, through a mysterious doctor seen in a dream, of a paralyzed man who had abused his wife for fifteen years, with an instruction to stop mistreating her; the survival in 1877, during Romania's war for independence, of a Bucharest man's seven sons whose names he had placed beneath the saint's skull; the deliverance of a young woman named Alexandrina P. from demonic possession upon venerating the relic on October 27; and an account from October 26, 1988, that the coffin would not move until the bishop processed it with proper liturgical reverence.
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