A decade after the martyrdom of Prince Constantin Brancoveanu, together with his four sons and his councillor Ianache Văcărescu, their sacrifice began to appear in the light of its holiness in Romanian folk poetry as well as in the Church of the East. That is why the Greek Metropolitan Kallinikos of Heraclea († 1726) has put together a "Canon of Constantin Brancoveanu, Prince of Wallachia" These were the first elements of a canonization that will be done only in 1992 by the HolySynod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. This is why we wished to highlight the main premises of their passing into the hosts of the saints. Because, as pointed out in 1945 by a brilliant canonist, Rev. Prof. Liviu Stana, popular piety and mystical instinct of the faithful consecrate the saints, a patriarchal tomos - sooner or later - doing nothing else but to take note of an actual state and bless it.

Keywords: canonization, Brancoveanu, relics, holiness

MIRCEA GELU BUTA