Hundreds of members of Ireland’s Romanian Orthodox community travelled to south Dublin on Sunday to worship in their newly purchased cathedral and mark the annual exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Romanian and Irish-Romanian families from counties Wexford, Kildare, Galway and Dublin as well as from Northern Ireland gathered to celebrate in the former Christ Church Leeson Park, now the Episcopal Cathedral of the Diocese.

The church is estimated to have sold for more than €4 million and was purchased with financial assistance from the Romanian government as well as through local fundraising among the 300-400 families who make up the orthodox parish.

Men, women and children filed into the 19th-century church from 8.30am on Sunday where they paid the customary small fee for communion bread and a candle which they later presented at the altar with their name on a small slip of paper.

A chorus of hymns and chants filled the rafters of the cathedral, as the melodious orthodox choir sang without pause throughout the appointment of a new deacon. This was followed by the liturgy led by the Romanian Orthodox bishop Nectarie Petre of Ireland and Iceland, who was elected to the role last year.

Fr Calin Florea, parish priest of the Romanian Orthodox community in Leeson Park, said Sunday’s service was a significant moment for the people who have gathered for worship in the church for more than two decades.

The orthodox community agreed a lease with the Anglican Church in 2004 who “accepted us to use the church”, said Fr Florea.

“Since then, many families have had their weddings, their baptisms, sadly their burials here. They’ve become very attached to the church and it feels like home.

“People come here when they’re sad, when they’re burdened with the heavy duties of life. They come here to rejoice and are happy. And for everybody here today, it’s like returning home.”

According to the 2022 census there were more than 100,100 Orthodox Christians in Ireland, of whom 28,476 were Romanian Orthodox. Nearly two-thirds of Romanian citizens reported their religion as Orthodox in the latest census.

When Fr Florea arrived in 2004 he was one of two Orthodox priests in Ireland – the second was the late Fr Godfrey O’Donnell, a former Jesuit priest who left the Catholic priesthood to marry in 1985 and was ordained a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland in 2004. Today, there are 17 orthodox priests in Ireland, said Fr Florea.

He said it was “a miracle” the parish had succeeded in raising the funds for the purchase. “Seven months ago when we left the church, none of us believed we would be able to buy the cathedral. I think it’s a miracle from God, today was a very important moment for us.”

He added that Ireland’s Romanian Orthodox and Anglican church had formed a very strong relationship and recently told the Most Reverend Dr Michael Jackson, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, that the Leeson Park church would “remain their home as well”. “They didn’t leave, we are here together now. It’s important for us to be one Christian voice in secularised society.”