On his 32nd birthday, Beau from the Netherlands was baptized in a Serbian church in Andalusia and said: “For the first time in my life, I feel like I am truly living.”
Far from his native Netherlands, in sunny Andalusia, Dutchman Beau Rulofsen (32), his mother Natalia, as well as his brother Jesse and sister-in-law Loneke, have found their new spiritual path, in the Serbian Orthodox Church!
Seven Spaniards and Dutch people received Orthodoxy on the eve of St. Peter’s Day in the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the Spanish city of Fuengirola, Malaga province, including Beau and members of his immediate family. This confirms that the Orthodox faith under the wing of the SPC in the heart of Andalusia is slowly but surely finding its way to new believers.
They were baptized by immersion in water on July 12, the very day Beau was celebrating his birthday. Incidentally, St. Peter’s Day is also celebrated as the patron saint day of the parish in Andalusia, which is part of the Diocese of Western Europe.
-Bio sam veoma srećan i uzbuđen – poručio je ovaj novopečeni pravoslavac za Kurir.
“I was very happy and excited,” this newfound Orthodox convert told Kurir.
His baptized name is Aleksandar. For him, Orthodoxy is a revelation that, he says, brought him inner peace and a deep connection with a tradition and community that warmly embraced him.
“Growing up in the Netherlands, I knew nothing about Orthodoxy because it was hidden. It was only when I started traveling outside the country and building a business in Bulgaria and Serbia that I became acquainted with Orthodoxy. And in Orthodoxy, I found peace!” Beau tells us.
He proudly bears a large cross tattoo on his chest, with religious elements, and above the cross, a symbol composed of the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, which in Christianity symbolizes God as the beginning and end of all things. On the palm of his right hand, there is a cross, a symbol of faith and protection, but it also has a personal symbolism of his spiritual journey.
“In the Netherlands, as in most European countries, not much is taught about faith and religion. The only thing you sometimes see is Catholic Christianity, but I never felt any connection to it, because my whole idea of faith was the Pope talking to God, and then to you to forgive you, you give money and kiss the ring… It never made sense to me,” Beau, or Aleksandar, tells us.
Before converting to Orthodoxy, he appeared in the church, attended services, and expressed a desire to be baptized in a Serbian church on Spanish soil. Many think he is Serbian. Even before his baptism, he adopted the patronage of Saint Basil of Ostrog and celebrated it. He spent a lot of time with Serbs, and his best friend is a Serb from the Netherlands, Filip Katić.
“He introduced me to his community and allowed me to learn from their customs and way of life. In the end, he even became my godfather, because he organized my baptism. The baptism was an unreal experience, very emotional for me. I’m trying to find the right words to describe it, but it’s difficult. I felt immense gratitude that all these people invested their time and trust in me – that Filip became my godfather, that the priest gave me his time and blessing, that the whole community allowed me to join it. Maybe it sounds cliché, but I truly felt like a huge burden fell off me after the baptism. For me, it’s a new beginning in life. In fact, for the first time, I feel like I’m actually starting to live. For years I wandered, and now I have finally found meaning.”
Recall that the existence of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Serbian language was recorded in the Canary Islands in 2018; Father Dušan served for 16 years in the territory of the Netherlands and Belgium, where he created eight communities, and then he came up with the idea for the Serbian church to establish life on the soil of Andalusia and Valencia. The parish in Andalusia was established a year ago. It is missionary in character, and 300 Serbs live on the coast itself, while Russians and Orthodox Ukrainians have joined the community. This year, they celebrated the patron saint day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul for the second time, and the parish was visited by Bishop Justin of Western Europe, Patriarch’s Vicar Bishop Petar of Toplica, and Abbot of Tuman Monastery Dimitrije Plećević.
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Source: Kurir; Photo: Hand-out