A 2017 BALANCE OF SAINT ANTIM

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

In 9 February 2017 a strange image of the Moon
made me remember that
Romania had to begin the campaign for a new edition
of the Rugby Europe Championship.

And because Romania means a lot of major and decisive things for me,
plus Venus, the Moon and the Sun
(organically reproduced on its coat of arms),
on February 10-11 I caught all these heavenly bodies in special disposals.

As never before, in 2017
I was interested only about the final of the competition,
the annual match against Georgia,
for which the winner also receives the Antim Cup,
a trophy named after a hero and martyr of Eastern Christianity,
Saint Antim the Iverian (Georgian born and adopted by the Romanian Land,
where he became the patriarch of the country and transformed Bucharest, for short,
into the 3rd Rome or the Christian Orthodox Rome
just because here, in the hard times for the Orthodox believers
under Ottoman domination during the 18th century,
he printed religious books for all the occupied countries;
unfortunately, he was finally killed by Ottomans in 1716).

But this time almost nobody believed that Romania
(the 16th place in World Rugby Ranking)
could beat Georgia
(the 12th place in World Rugby Ranking):
in the last 7 matches, Georgia had won 6
(culminating with 38-9 in 2016 at Tbilisi)
and only one gave a draw score (9-9 in 2013 at Bucharest).

The main psychological problem was that, a long time ago,
the Georgians began to copy the old Romanian glorious style
(based on strong scrums and a good defensive)
and now they played it better.

This is the reason for which on February 22
I went to the Antim Monastery to see the sunset,
framing that day between
the planet Jupiter (accompanied by the star Spica) on the morning
(followed by the Morning Moon and the sunrise)
and the star Sirius on the evening,
and passing near the Romanian Parliament.

I tried to make Saint Antim remember that he was an elite Romanian, too,
and I asked him for a chance…

On the morning of February 28
I saw a solar halo and I thought it might be an answer
(the halo of an anticipated victory!),
and on that evening I went again to that monastery
(seeing the sunset near the Parliament),
this time to renew my respectful request to Saint Antim
and to see the historical monument under the Moon Sickle and Venus.

And I photographically caught, among the clouds,
Venus (two times),
Venus and the Moon,
Venus,
the Moon,
Sirius (on the left of the spires)
and Venus again…

During the week of the match,
I selectively caught hypostases of the Sun and of the Moon.

And on the great day (March 19)
I went to the stadium (passing near the Triumph Arc and the Casin Church)
to watch the match in which Romania (this time helped by
5 foreign players who had become Romanians through naturalization -
4 from the southern hemisphere
and 1 from… Georgia, just like Antim in the past!)
obtained an extraordinary and heroic victory, 8-7 (5-7),
winning for the first time after 2010
the Antim Cup and the Rugby Europe Championship.

I would say that Georgia was very lucky in the first round,
while Romania was very lucky in the second round,
as if Saint Antim impartially shared his love for the two nations.

Or perhaps the minimal difference was made by the vibration of
the Church of Romanian Rugby (Casin),
placed right near the stadium!(?)