On Thursday, May 21, 2026, on the feast of the Ascension of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and on the day when the Church also honors with special devotion the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Nativity of the Lord in Chișinău.
Concelebrating with the Metropolitan were priest Vadim Cheibaș, Metropolitan Secretary and Ecclesiarch of the Cathedral; Hieromonk Paisie (Ipate), cellarer of the Saint Nicholas the Hierarch Cathedral in Bangkok, Thailand; together with the clergy of priests and deacons present at the service.
Today’s feast commemorates the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven in His body, forty days after His Resurrection from the dead. The Ascension of the Lord represents the final event in the earthly life of the Savior.
The earliest mention of the Feast of the Ascension is found in the work On the Feast of Pascha, written by Eusebius of Caesarea in the year 332. This work indicates that, at that time, the Ascension of the Lord was celebrated together with Pentecost, fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ. Toward the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth century, the Feast of the Ascension became distinct from the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit and began to be celebrated on the fortieth day after the Resurrection — the date that has remained permanently established in the Church calendar.
During the period of the Pentecostarion, from the Resurrection of the Lord until Pentecost, the Lord’s disciples passed through a time of preparation in which their minds were opened to understand the Scriptures. Afterwards, they received the command to go forth and preach the new teaching of the Holy Gospel to all nations. The Savior led His disciples out of Jerusalem and up to the Mount of Olives. Lifting up His hands, He blessed them, and while blessing them, He ascended into Heaven.
The Savior ascended into Heaven in order to make possible the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the establishment of the Church as the gathering of people filled with the Holy Spirit. Christ the Lord, according to His words, “Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age,” never departed from the Church; rather, with Pentecost began the inward and spiritual presence of the Risen Lord among His faithful.
Synodal Department for Institutional Communication and Media Relations
