His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel highlighted St Pachomius the Great as a model of communion in Christ in a message sent to the 32nd International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, being held from 8 to 12 September at Bose Monastery in Italy.
The Patriarch of Romania said the legacy of St Pachomius, to whom this year’s conference is dedicated, shows that Christian community is built through prayer, obedience, service and sacrificial love.
“The legacy of St Pachomius teaches us that every ecclesial community — parish, monastery or family — finds its unity in Christ and is built up through prayer, obedience, service and sacrificial love, while those who serve God with faith live according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures,” His Beatitude said.
We publish below the full text of the message in English and Italian.
St Pachomius the Great – Founder of Cenobitic Monasticism and Witness to Communion in Christ
Rev. Prior Sabino Chialà,
Distinguished participants,
We received with particular joy the invitation to participate in the 32nd International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, being held from 8 to 12 September 2026 at Bose Monastery in Italy.
For more than three decades, this event has promoted knowledge and a deeper understanding of the teachings of the Holy Church Fathers, providing a blessed opportunity for dialogue, closer relations and mutual enrichment among Christian traditions, in a spirit of respect for the common heritage of the first centuries of Christianity.
The theme of this year’s conference, Abba Pachomius: At the Origins of Community Life, invites us to rediscover an outstanding figure of Eastern Christian monasticism who understood that human perfection is not merely a personal search for God, but also a work undertaken in communion, brotherly love and mutual responsibility.
St Pachomius the Great is honoured as the founder of cenobitic monastic life (koinonia), having organised for the first time communities in which prayer, obedience, work and service to one’s neighbour were woven together in a harmony inspired by the Gospel and by the model of the first Christian community in Jerusalem (cf. Acts of the Apostles 2:42–47; 4:32–35).
According to the teaching of St Pachomius that “love is the fulfilment of the law”, true knowledge of God bears fruit through love for one’s neighbour and through a life lived in communion. This truth is all the more relevant today in a society marked by individualism, isolation and social fragmentation.
The model of the Pachomian community reminds us that true freedom is not attained through self-sufficiency and selfishness, but through communion with God and our fellow human beings, and that ascetic struggle is not an end in itself, but the path by which a person purifies the heart and prepares for the Kingdom of God.
Monastic communities inspired by St Pachomius continue to bear witness today to the fact that the Gospel is the foundation of a way of life in which prayer, work, hospitality, forgiveness and mutual responsibility give rise to an authentic culture of communion.
The legacy of St Pachomius teaches us that every ecclesial community — parish, monastery or family — finds its unity in Christ and is built up through prayer, obedience, service and sacrificial love, while those who serve God with faith live according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
We hope that this year’s conference will offer all participants the opportunity to gain a deeper spiritual understanding of the legacy of St Pachomius, so that the witness of communion in Christ, prayer and service to one’s neighbour may become a source of light and hope for the Church and for today’s world.
We pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that, through the intercession of St Pachomius the Great, founder of cenobitic monastic life, He may bless the proceedings of this conference and grant everyone strength in faith, peace and spiritual joy, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for our salvation.
† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church