The National Day at the Patriarchal Cathedral

Romanian Orthodox Church

1/12/2010

The National Day of Romania was marked today at the Patriarchal Cathedral first of all during the Divine Liturgy when the authors of the Union of 1 December 1918 were remembered, among whom an outstanding place is held by Miron Cristea, the first Patriarch of Romania, whose grave is in the Patriarchal Cathedral.

At 12.00 o’clock, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Te Deum service in the Patriarchal Cathedral. Hundreds of faithful, and tens of children and young people, among whom a group of students from “Jean Monet” High School of Ploiesti were also present in the Cathedral, where they received the blessing of the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church and small icons of the Holy Trinity, the symbol of unity.

During the Te Deum, His Beatitude delivered a sermon entitled The Church blessed and cultivated the gift of the national unity and freedom.

To end with the Te Deum service, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel showed that the unity of the Holy Trinity is the symbol the people of our Church used for National Unity throughout the history: “The Holy Trinity has always been, for all those who fought for the union of the principalities and the great union of all the Romanian provinces into a unitary state, a symbol of the union and unity of the three Romanian provinces: Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania. The most important Cathedrals of Transylvania are dedicated to the “Holy Trinity”. The Cathedrals of Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Blaj and the new Cathedral of Arad, are all dedicated to the “Holy Trinity”, because the Holy Trinity helps us search for, keep and consolidate our national unity.

His Beatitude has also shown the fact that the great Union of Alba Iulia was considered a joy of the Resurrection too: “We learned from the unity of the Holy Trinity that the blessed life is the life in communion, not in division and isolation. The true freedom is freedom for communion. Yet, the Great Union of Alba Iulia was considered a joy of the Resurrection too. A newspaper of Lugoj titled the event of the union of Alba Iulia on the first page with the words: “We have been resurrected!” So, unity is resurrection, while division is death. When the great union was achieved, the joy was as big as that on the Easter day. Those who asked in 1848: “We want to unite with the country” were the first who expressed the desire of unity through a great joy, so that those from Alba Iulia lived this union. After the Divine Liturgy and Te Deum, they went out in the fields to affirm, just like in a Liturgy, the national unity and lived the joy of the Resurrection”.

“Besides the icon of the Holy Trinity we shall give today the icon of Jesus Christ, Crucified and Resurrected. We want to begin with the school students who came here. I saw a group of students from a school and we were very glad because the National Day, just like the Day of the Heroes on the Ascension of the Lord, is a day of spiritual education in love for the country and the Church”, also said the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

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