The Union Of The Principalities Was Done On The Metropolitan Hill In Bucharest

Romanian Orthodox Church

On 24 January 2011, on the occasion of the anniversary of 152 years since the Union of the Romanian Principalities (1859), an act that took place in a building of the Church situated near the then Metropolitan Cathedral (today’s Patriarchal Cathedral), the prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Metropolitan Nifon of Wallachia, Metropolitan Sofronie Miclescu of Moldova and the other authors of the Union of the Romanian Principalities were remembered within the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the Patriarchal Cathedral.

On the same occasion, at noon, a thanksgiving service was celebrated at the Patriarchal Cathedral with the participation of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

His Beatitude delivered the message entitled “The Union was done on the Metropolitan Hill of Bucharest”, in which he spoke to the faithful both about the role of the Church in the achievement of the Union of the Principalities and about its importance for our Church.

“The achievement of the Union of the Romanian Principalities was favourable from a spiritual point of view too, bringing about the Unitarian organisation of the church structures in all the Romanian provinces, under the leadership of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, confirmed by Alexandru Ioan Cuza through the Bill of 1864. At the same time, due to the intervention of Alexandru Ioan Cuza to the Ecumenical Patriarchate (1865) for getting the recognition of the autocephaly, the premises for raising the Romanian Orthodox Church, autocephalous since 1885, to the rank of Patriarchate, in 1925, were created”, said His Beatitude.

The Union of the Principalities is not the “Small Union”, as many times said, but the “Basic Union”, also explained the Patriarch of Romania.

“The Union of the Romanian Principalities, begun at Iasi on 5 January 1859 and completed in Bucharest, on 24 January 1859, is not the “Small Union”, as some people say, but the “Basic Union”, because it made the foundation for the formation of the Romanian state in 1862, named Romania, a foundation needed for getting the Romanian national independence as a result of the War for independence in 1877, a foundation for raising Romania to the rank of Kingdom in 1881, and especially for the Union of 1 December 1918, at Alba Iulia, as a Union of Transylvania with Romania, on 27 March 1918, and of the Union of Bucovina with Romania on 28 November 1918. For the Church, the Union of the Romanian Principalities was the foundation needed for the official recognition of the Autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1885, while the Union of 1 December 1918 was an element favourable for raising our Church to the rank of Patriarchate in 1925” also said the Patriarch of Romania.

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