Chisinau, the largest city and capital of the Republic of Moldova, also called the “white stone city”, celebrates its Patron Saint Day on Monday, October 14. This day is a nonworking day in the capital and a program of cultural and artistic events is staged for the residents and visitors of the city.
The first mention regarding the locality dates back to July 1436, and later a rural fair with a stone hall, around the parishes of the Nativity of the Virgin and the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helen, was described
The decision to mark the Patron Saint Day of Chisinau on October 14, on the day of the religious feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, was taken 24 years ago. Until then, since 1995, the City Day was celebrated on the second Sunday of October.
The “B.P. Hasdeu” Municipal Library published a copy of a decision of 1987 to celebrate the City Day on the first Saturday of October.
The program of the first celebration of the Patron Saint Day of Chisinau on October 14, in 2000, began with the Akathist Hymn to the Protection of the Mother of God at the Metropolitan Cathedral, followed by the Liturgy, a tradition that is still preserved today. After the laying of flowers and official speeches, a cultural-artistic program and the inauguration of a series of infrastructure facilities followed.
A number of prominent personalities lived in Chisinau, such as writers Grigore Vieru, Alexandru Hâjdeu, Alexei Mateevici, Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu, Constantin Negruzzi, fabulist Alecu Donici, writer and theologian Gala Galaction, translator of the Bible into Romanian, interpreter and composer Ion Aldea Teodorovici. For a while, Natalia Obrenovic (née Keșcu), Queen of Serbia, also lived in Chisinau.
The late poet Dumitru Matcovschi compared Chisinau to a piece of heaven: “I know that there are big cities/some even dream of them. But I don’t give anything/My little Chisinau!”. Composer Eugen Doga said that many states would like to have such a beautiful capital as Chisinau and that he has many reasons to believe in a beautiful future of the city.
Since November 2019, Ion Ceban has served as mayor general of Chisinau municipality, now at his second term. Among the longest-serving mayors of the city were: Carol Schmidt – an uninterrupted period of 26 years (1877-1903), Dimitrie Lovchinski – 14 years (in three distinct terms: between 1825-1830, 1834-1836 and 1843-1845), Dimitrie Mincu – 13 years (between 1849-1854 and then in 1858-1860 and 1861-1866), Serafim Urechean – 11 years (from 1994 to 2005) and Dorin Chirtoaca – 10 years (2007-2017).
Today, October 14, the Patron Saint Day of Iasi (the historical capital city of Moldavia) is also marked, but the citizens of Iasi celebrate, according to the new style calendar, Pious Saint Paraskeva, the protector of Moldavia. Also on October 14, it is celebrated the Patron Saint of the city of Tiraspol, the capital and administrative center of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian Moldovan Republic, a territorial part of the Republic of Moldova.
