St. John Jacob, celebrated in Allegan: Metropolitan Nicolae presented the saint's connection with the Romanians in the USAtranslated

Metropolitan Nicolae of the two Americas served on Sunday at the Romanian Monastery in Allegan, USA, where he highlighted the connection of Saint John Jacob the Hozevit with the Romanians overseas.

The service was occasioned by the anticipated celebration of St. John Jacob, the second patron of the Monastery of the Covering of the Mother of God in the state of Michigan.

His Eminence recalled the correspondence of Saint John Jacob with Archbishop Victorin Ursache, the pastor of the Romanians in America between 1966 and 2001.

Archbishop Victorin is the one who recommended St. John Jacob for ordination as a hierodeacon and then as a hieromonk in 1947, when he was the superior of the Romanian Settlements in the Holy Land.

After his ordination, St. John Jacob served as abbot of the Romanian Hermitage of St. John the Baptist in the Jordan Valley. In the five years that he assumed this obedience, St. John formed a spiritual friendship with Archimandrite Victorin, a friendship that continued after Father Victorin's departure to America in 1956, as evidenced by the correspondence between the two.

According to the Metropolis, several letters and poems were discovered in the diocesan archive in Chicago. Some…