86 Years Since The Setting Up Of The Romanian Patriarchate
4/2/2011
On 4 February 2011, it is 86 years since the raising of the Romanian Orthodox Church to the rank of Patriarchate. The decision was taken by the Holy Synod on 4 February 1925 and it was confirmed through Royal Decree of 25 February, the same year. So, the Metropolitan Primate Miron Cristea became “Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Ungrowallachia and Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church”.
“The moment of this proclamation was somehow postponed to be organised at the same time with the raising to the rank of patriarchate and the new church legislation, which could be definite after the constitution of 1923. Thus, the year 1925 became both the year when the church legislation was adopted, a fact accomplished in the spring of the respective year, and when the raising to the rank of patriarchate was achieved. After the decision taken on 4 February, the Senate confirmed it on 12 February and the Chamber of Deputies on 17 February, King Ferdinand promulgating it on 23 February the same year, 1925. All the churches have been informed, and we received the confirmation tomos from the Ecumenical Patriarchate – on behalf of Patriarch Basil III – on 30 July 1925, brought with great solemn pomp to Bucharest. On 1 November, the investiture ceremony took place at the Royal Palace and then the enthronement of the first patriarch in the person of Miron Cristea was held here, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest”, said Rev. Dr. Florin Serbanescu, as Trinitas TV channel informs us.
The construction of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation was a desire manifested ever since the first years of patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, a desire perpetuated in the course of time by all the Primates of our Church.
“In the first speech Patriarch Miron delivered as Patriarch, he presented a few important projects related to the development of the religious education at university level, to sending the Romanian students to study at some other faculties of Europe, to receiving other students here, in the country, to setting up academies of religious music and especially to the project he clearly formulated at the time concerning the construction of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation as an expression of the accomplishment of the history of the Romanian people. Now, after 86 years since this event, after many studies, it is accomplished through the determination of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. This is a an arch over time, a bridge that relates us one more time to the hopes of those who founded the patriarchate in 1925”, also said Rev. Dr. Florin Serbanescu.
The historical context of the raising of our Church to the rank of Patriarchate was a favourable one, entitled by the expectations of her faithful and hierarchs. During the 86 years of patriarchate the Romanian Orthodox Church has permanently served the Christian values and the national identity, having been near the Romanians in hard times.
“The raising of the Romanian Orthodox Church to the rank of Patriarchate, in 1925, obviously represents a basic moment in the history of the life of our Romanian Orthodox Church. This event took place in the context of the state political unification of 1 December 1918, while this process of church union that the raising of our Church to the rank of Patriarchate brought about could be reached on the backdrop of the constitution of the Romanian national modern state. A new period began, a period in which the Orthodox Church of the Romanians of Transylvania, Bucovina, Bessarabia and Banat began to unitary organise herself together with the Romanian Orthodox Church from the former kingdom of Romania”, explained Rev. Univ. Reader Dr. Mihai Sasaujan from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Bucharest.
