These days His Grace Bishop Macarie is in a pastoral visit to the Romanians from the south of Sweden. On this occasion, Saturday, February 15, 2020, the hierarch celebrated the Holy Liturgy of the Feast in the Romanian Orthodox parish church in the Swedish city of Växjö, guarded by St. Sigfrid, the Illuminator of Sweden. About this holy Orthodox hierarch who christened the Vikings, His Grace Macarie said: “In order to get to the heart of the warrior Viking nations, you must be as a missionary, a warrior yourself, a fighter ready to fight to the end and give your life for Christ. One such warrior carrying the weapons of the Spirit, of love, truth, good and justice was Saint Hierarch Sigfrid, who crushed the invisible enemies of salvation and overcame this world, conquering the inner city of the heart and invading it with His good radius. – Our Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, Saint Hierarch Sigfrid was a warrior of the Spirit, a warrior, succeeding, here and there, to conquer the warriors of the distant lands from these distant lands. So, we honor him especially today, along with his martyr nephews: Unaman the priest, Sunaman the deacon and Vinaman the hypodeacon. Together they spread the word of the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ in these lands, on the less welcoming soil of Scandinavian hearts.”

After the Holy Liturgy a memorial service was celebrated for the priest Milică Văsuianu, one year after the transition to the eternal ones.

On Sunday, February 16, 2020, His Grace Bishop Macarie served the Holy Liturgy in the church of the Romanian Orthodox parish in Kalmar. Honoring Holy Hieromartyr Haralambos, His Grace Macarie said that this professing hierarch, martyred at the age of 113, “though weak in body, was bold with the soul, having such a strong faith that he turned his tormentors to Christ, Porphyrios and Vaptos, who also confessed the Savior, sacrificing themselves together with the elder Haralambos and receiving the crown of martyrdom. At the same time, the daughter of his persecuting emperor, Septimius Severus, who was called Galinia, believed in Christ through Holy Haralambos and took care so that the glorious bodies of the martyrs of Haralambos, Porphyrios and Vaptos were placed in honor for the comfort of the faithful.”

At the same time, the father bishop urged the parishioners to follow the pattern of the saints celebrated these days “by receiving the cure of repentance and delivering us from those causing the death of the soul: carelessness, forgetfulness and ignorance. That is, the carelessness for our salvation, the forgetfulness of the good that God does for us incessantly, and the ignorance for the times of sifting in which we live, because the times of today are not unlike those in which the martyrs of the Church lived in ancient times. But we should not worry that we are not far from these times, it is important that we are not far from living and confessing of them”, said the hierarch.

The children, both in Växjö and Kalmar, after sharing with the Holy Sacraments, received from the bishop several gifts.