The National Day at the Patriarchate

December 2013

On the National Day of Romania, 1st of December 2013, at the Patriarchal Cathedral a Te Deum service was celebrated. The service was celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, surrounded by a group of priests and deacons in the presence of many believers. On this occasion, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church addressed the audience on the Hill of Joy the speech entitled The Church’s contribution to national unity emphasizing the major contribution of the Romanian Orthodox Church in promoting the consciousness of spiritual unity of the Romanian people”. She has cultivated in Romanian faithful’s souls the living consciousness that they have the same origin, as a nation, the same language and the same Christian faith. The Metropolitanates of the Wallachia and of Moldova were in close connection with the Metropolitanate of Transylvania, the spreading of religious books, fraternal help in time of persecution, correspondence between bishops, and personal contacts among priests, monastics and faithful pilgrims being often practiced on both sides of the Carpathians” said His Beatitude.

“The consciousness of national unity was strengthened especially by translating and publishing religious books in Romanian for ’the whole Romanian nation’, laying, thus, the foundations of the Romanian literary language, which further strengthened the conscience of unity of the nation to all Romanians. The Church gave service books and teaching in the vernacular language, understood by all, which circulated in all Romanian provinces, stressing often in the preface of these books the national and religious unity of all Romanians, underlined also the Patriarch of Romania. “For all the blessings of the Great Unification in the life and history of the Romanian people, today we thank God and commemorate with gratitude all the Romanian heroes who fought for freedom, unity and dignity of the Romanian people”, said the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church. According to church tradition and the decision of the Holy Synod, the National Day of Romania is celebrated in the diocesan cathedrals, parish churches and monasteries in the country and abroad, as well as in the chapels of schools of Orthodox theology by a specific Te Deum service, when our Romanian heroes who brought about the Romanian national unity in 1918 are commemorated.

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