The Church Blessed And Cultivated The Gift Of National Unity And Freedom
1/12/2010
The speech of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the Te Deum celebrated on 1 December 2010, in the Patriarchal Cathedral, for the National Day of Romania:
The day of 1 December is a day of gratitude or thanksgiving brought to God for the great gift of the national unity and freedom, that the Romanian people acquired through strong faith and sacrificial fight throughout many centuries of hardships suffered in a Christian manner, through the wisdom and firm will of the patriot, civil and clergy leaders, through the bravery of the militaries and the ardent desire of the Romanian people of national unity and freedom.
The Great Union of 1 December 1918 of all the Romanian provinces into a Romanian unitary state was the crowning of many efforts of gradual affirmation of the national conscience and of the desire of national unity.
The Great Union of Alba Iulia was gradually preceded and prepared by the Revolution of 1848, by the Union of the Romanian Principalities of 1859 (as this was the basic Union or the Pivot Union, not the “Little Union”), by the Romanians’ victory over the Ottomans in the War of Independence of 1877, by the raising of Romania to the rank of Kingdom in 1881, by the acquirement of the Autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1885 and by the victories of the Romanian army in the World War I, from 1914 – 1918, by the proclamation of the Union of Bucovina with Romania, at Cernauti, on 28 November 1918.
In all these stages of progress to the achievement of the Great Union of 1 December 1918, the Romanian Orthodox Church was with the people, was in front of them with the prayer, especially celebrating the Divine Liturgy and Te Deum, used the sermon and the printed word, cultivating the national conscience, the ideal of the fight for national freedom and unity.
The hierarchs, scholars, priests, patriot deacons, theology professors, monks, nuns who looked after the wounded soldiers, the parishes and monasteries who organized fund raisings and gathered aliments, encouraged morally and materially all the Romanian fighters for national freedom and unity, especially during the Independence War of 1877 and the World War I, from 1916 – 1918.
As for the event of the Great Union of Alba Iulia of 1 December 1918, the 1228 official delegates to the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia also included many servants of the Church: hierarchs, theology professors, eparchial counselors, parish priests and even students in theology. The great patriot Gheorghe Pop of Basesti chaired the working session of the Assembly, together with the bishops of Arad and Oradea. The servants of the Church were also elected in the Great Council of the Romanian nation, as well as in the Executive Council, while the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Caransebes, Miron Cristea, the future Patriarch of Great Romania, and the Greek Catholic Bishop of Gherla, Iuliu Hosu, were elected in the four – person delegation who presented the Union Document in Bucharest.
The proclamation of the Union of Alba Iulia was preceded by the Divine Liturgy and by a Te Deum, because it was lived as a Divine Liturgy of the Romanian communion, of the national unity and freedom, as an act of gratitude or thanksgiving brought to God as well as an appreciation of the heroes who fought for national freedom and affirmation of the national unity and dignity.
This is why today, after the Divine Liturgy, when the Romanian heroes were remembered, we celebrated the Te Deum service, namely of gratitude for the great gift of the national unity and freedom, and praying God to help us keep and cultivate this great gift and dignity of a people free and united in an independent state open to dialogue and cooperation with other peoples and countries.
Because the territorial unity achieved in 1918 is no longer quite the same today, we must cultivate more the communion with our Romanian brothers close to the frontiers of Romania and with the Romanians from everywhere. So, the National Day of Romania will be rather the Day of the National Unity and Dignity of the Romanians.
We pray the Holy Trinity to give us all the joy of the brotherly communion in keeping the right faith and our national dignity.
† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
