Patriarch Miron of Romania
Patriarch Nicodim of Romania | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Elie Cristea 20 July 1868 |
Died | 6 March 1939 Cannes, France | (aged 70)
Buried | Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral |
Nationality | Romanian |
Signature | |
Prime Minister of Romania | |
In office 11 February 1938 – 6 March 1939 | |
Monarch | Carol II |
Deputy | Armand Călinescu |
Preceded by | Octavian Goga |
Succeeded by | Armand Călinescu |
Personal details | |
Political party | none |
Profession | priest |
Miron Cristea (Romanian pronunciation: [miˈron ˈkriste̯a]; monastic name of Elie Cristea [eˈli.e]; 20 July 1868 – 6 March 1939)[1] was a Romanian cleric and politician.
A bishop in Hungarian-ruled Transylvania, Cristea was elected Metropolitan-Primate of the Orthodox Church of the newly unified Greater Romania in 1919. As the Church was raised to a rank of Patriarchate, Miron Cristea was enthroned as the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1925.
In 1938, after
Biography
Early life
Born in
Cristea then studied philosophy and modern philology at the University of Budapest (1891–1895), where he was awarded a doctorate in 1895 – with a dissertation about the life and works of Mihai Eminescu (given in Hungarian).[2][3]
Returning to Transylvania, he was a secretary (between 1895 and 1902), then a counselor (1902–1909) at the Archbishopric of Sibiu. It was then that he was ordained deacon in 1900 and archdeacon in 1901. Cristea became a monk at the Hodoș Bodrog Monastery, Arad County in 1902, taking the monastic name of Miron. He climbed the monastery hierarchy, becoming an archmonk in 1903 and a protosingel in 1908.[3]
In 1908, following the death of bishop
During World War I, as Romania joined the war on the Allies' side, Cristea signed on 1 September 1916, a public letter to the parishioners printed at Oradea by the Orthodox Bishopric of Transylvania. The letter called to arms all believers against "Romania the new enemy which sinfully covets to ruin the borders, coming to conquer Transylvania".[5]
Towards the end of World War I, on 18 October 1918, the Central National Romanian Central Council was formed, an organization which fought for the union of Transylvania and Romania. On 21 November, Cristea, as archbishop of Caransebeș joined the organization and recognized it as the only ruling body of the Romanian nation in Transylvania. On 1 December, he was (with Vasile Goldiș, Iuliu Hossu, and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod) a member of Austro-Hungarian Romanian delegation that called for the unification of Romania and Transylvania.[6]
On 28 May 1919, the King and government of Romania went to the grave of
Metropolitan-Primate and Patriarch
Because of his collaboration with the
As Metropolitan-Primate and later Patriarch, Cristea continued the tradition of his predecessors to support whatever government was in power. The church acted as an agency of the state, for instance, in 1920, Cristea asked the clergymen to aid the state financially by encouraging the faithful to buy government bonds.[7] Cristea's discourse incorporated nationalist and statist elements, arguing that Orthodox religion was integral to the Romanian soul, and he argued that the church's values include "patriotism" and "obedience to [civil] authorities" alongside "faith and morality".[7]
Cristea introduced reforms such as the
In 1927, he was chosen by
Cristea's involvement in politics was, however, controversial, being criticised by journalists at
A dispute arose with philosopher Nae Ionescu after Ionescu attacked Cristea for hypocrisy in newspaper articles following a lavish dinner with Cristea during the Nativity Fast at which they were served turkey. In retaliation, Cristea requested that the iconographer Belizarie paint Ionescu's face on a devil in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest's Apocalypse-themed mural.[13]
In 1929, because of a serious illness (identified as leucocythemia by his medics), Cristea retired for several months to a country house in Dragoslavele, Muscel County, but despite the bleak predictions about his health state, he was soon able to return to Bucharest.[14]
On 6 July 1930, Carol II returned to Romania to assume power. On 7 July, Miron Cristea and Constantin Sărățeanu resigned from the regency and the following day, the Parliament revoked the 1926 law which gave the throne to Mihai, Carol becoming King again.[15]
Cristea kept his loyalty to King Carol II throughout his rule. In March 1937, as the King attempted to suppress the influence of the fascist movement known as the Iron Guard, Cristea responded to the request sent by the Tătărescu government on limiting the relationship between the clergy and the Iron Guard. Cristea invoked a Holy Synod which banned clergy from joining the Legion and disallowed political demonstrations and symbols in the churches.[16]
Prime Minister of Romania
In a bid for political unity against the Iron Guard, which was gaining popularity, on 10 February 1938, Carol dismissed the government of Prime Minister Octavian Goga and seized emergency powers. He suspended the constitution, suspended all political activity, and ruled by decree. Cristea was named Prime Minister on 11 February 1938. He headed a government that included seven former prime ministers and members of all major parties except for Codreanu's Iron Guard and Goga's Lăncieri, which had violently clashed.[17] Time magazine described him as a "puppet Premier" of Carol II,[18] whereas historian Joseph Rothschild considered that it was Cristea's vice-prime-minister, Armand Călinescu, who held the power in the Cristea government.[19]
In his inaugural speech, Cristea denounced liberal pluralism, arguing that "the monster with 29 electoral heads was destroyed" (referring to the 29 political parties which were to be banned) and claiming that the king shall bring salvation.[20]
The new government stopped the antisemitic violence that was unleashed under Goga's rule, but the
At Carol's direction, Cristea's government declared
The external politics of the Cristea government were based on seeking an alliance with the
Among the policies Cristea introduced during his rule as Prime Minister was a crackdown on the Protestant minority, by disallowing religious service to small congregations with less than 100 heads of families, basically banning the services in around 1500 small chapels belonging to various non-Orthodox Christian denominations.[18] Despite worldwide protests from the Baptists, the ban was only lifted after Cristea's death by his successor, the National Renaissance Front's Armand Călinescu.[18]
On 20 February, a
Upon the approval of the new constitution, Cristea's government resigned on 30 March. He formed a new government later that day. The new government banned all political parties, their activity being only suspended before that.[26]
In March 1938, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the leader of the Iron Guard, attacked in a letter the politicians who supported Carol II, including Prime Minister Cristea and members of his government. Codreanu was arrested for slander against Nicolae Iorga and killed "while attempting to escape".[1]
By the end of 1938, Carol II introduced even more Fascist-inspired elements. In December 1938, the
Deteriorating health and death
His health deteriorated in January 1939, suffering from two heart attacks,[29] which prompted his doctors to recommend him to stay in a warmer place for a few months, in order to avoid the harsher Romanian winter.[1] In response, on 1 February 1939, Călinescu took over most of Cristea's powers, while Cristea remained nominally the Prime Minister at the King's insistence.[30]
On 24 February 1939, Cristea arrived in
His body was sent by train to Bucharest, the funeral train stopping in all stations in Romania to permit believers to pay their last respects and say prayers before the body. On 7 March, a state of national mourning was ordered and all festivities were canceled.[31] A week later, on 14 March, funeral services were held in Bucharest,[32] Cristea being buried in the Patriarchal Cathedral.[8]
Political positions and policies
Cristea's political positions were nationalistic, seeing for Romania external threats from both the east, in the form of communism and the Soviet Union and from the capitalist and modernist west.[33]
Toward other Christian denominations
As he became the head of the Orthodox Church in Greater Romania, a multiethnic and multireligious state, Cristea feared that the ethnic minorities, as well as Romanians belonging to non-Orthodox creeds such as the Greek-Catholicism and the Jews would challenge the privileged status which the Orthodox Church had in pre-World War I Romania.[33]
Nevertheless, Cristea attempted an
Cristea strongly opposed the idea of a Concordat with the Vatican and the Romanian Orthodox Church issued a statement against it saying that "the treaty subordinates the interests of the country and the sovereignty of the state to a foreign power".[36] The Romanian Senate ratified it anyway on 26 May 1929, and Cristea, as a member of the regency, was forced to sign it.[1] This has led again to discussions about the incompatibility between his two posts and there were discussions on whether Cristea would have resigned rather than sign the Concordat.[37]
After Cristea introduced reforms such as switching to the Gregorian calendar, the
In 1937,
Toward the Jews
Early during his tenure as Patriarch, Cristea supported tolerance towards the Jewish people. For instance, in 1928, he made an appeal towards the Romanian students to observe the Golden Rule and he expressed regrets for attacks and profanations of synagogues.[1]
In the 1930s, as the Fascist Iron Guard rose in popularity, initially, Cristea's position towards them was of acceptance, especially since their program included loyalty to Orthodoxism. Many Orthodox priests were attracted by the movement and it was common that their banners were blessed in churches.[33]
In 1937, Cristea realized that the Iron Guard was decreasing the loyalty of both the Orthodox Christians and the lower-ranked clergy to the church hierarchy and began to oppose the Guard, while adopting their
On 18 August 1937, he issued a statement which called the Romanian nation "to fight the Jewish parasites"[41] who spread "epidemics of corruption" throughout Romania and that the Romanians have "a national and patriotic duty" to protect themselves against the Jews:[40]
"The duty of a Christian is to love himself first and to see that his needs are satisfied. Only then can he help his neighbor. . . . Why should we not get rid of these parasites [Jews] who suck Romanian Christian blood? It is logical and holy to react against them."[42]
In 1938, during a meeting with Wilhelm Fabricius, the German ambassador, Cristea praised the antisemitic policy conducted by Nazi Germany and supporting such a policy in Romania,[43] and the British Ambassador wrote in his report to London that "Nothing would induce him [i.e., Cristea] to talk about anything but the Jewish problem."[40]
Legacy
His birthplace home in Toplița is currently a museum dedicated to his life. Each year, on Cristea's birthday, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate organizes the "Miron Cristea Days", dedicated to the first patriarch of the Church and which feature various cultural activities.[44]
In July 2010, the National Bank of Romania minted a commemorative coin bearing Cristea's image as a part of a collectors' series of five coins showing the Patriarchs of All Romania. In response, Radu Ioanid, international archives director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, called for the coin be withdrawn.[45] On 20 August, the National Bank of Romania announced that it would not withdraw the Cristea coin.[46]
Patriarch Miron was awarded Order of Karađorđe's Star by Serbia.[47]
References
- ^ New York Times, 7 March 1939; p. 18
- ^ a b c d Gheorghe Iancu, "Membrii transilvăneni ai Academiei Române (sesiunea 1919)", in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie "George Bariţiu", Editura Academiei Române, 2007, ISSN 1584-4390 p. 73 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 973-97391-4-8
- ^ Anton Drăgoiescu (editor), "Politică, biserică și școală la sașii ardeleni în perioada dualismului (1867–1918)", in Istoria Transilvaniei, Editura "George Barițiu", Cluj-Napoca, 1999, p. 248
- ^ Octavian Paler, "Întrebări la care nu voiam să ajung" Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Cotidianul, 4 April 2006
- ^ Mircea Păcurariu, "Slujitorii altarului și Marea Unire" Archived 3 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, in Magazin Istoric, no. 1 / 1999
- ^ ISBN 978-0-230-21801-7, pp. 39–41
- ^ a b c "Patriarhii care au făcut politica Domnului, uneori și pe cea a României", in Adevărul, 4 August 2007
- ^ a b c "Patimile Bisericii Ortodoxe de Stil Vechi", Evenimentul Zilei, 4 January 2004
- Time Magazine, 7 January 1929
- ISBN 0-19-822126-6p. 413
- ^ "Edit Bucharest paper with pistols handy", The New York Times, 20 April 1926, p. 27
- ^ Dan Ciachir, Istoria presei, Ziua, 3 February 2007
- ^ "Roumania Patriarch Feared Near Death", The Washington Post, 16 September 1929, p. 2
- ^ Ioan Scurtu, "Principele Nicolae așa cum a fost" Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, in Magazin Istoric, no. 11 / 2000
- ^ ISBN 973-681-989-2p. 25-26
- ^ "Patriarch forms cabinet as anti-semitic regime of Goga falls in Rumania", The New York Times, 11 February 1938, p. 1
- ^ a b c "Noble Gesture", in Time, 24 April 1939
- ISBN 0-295-95357-8p. 311
- ^ Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, "The Ruler and the Patriarch: The Romanian Eastern Orthodox Church in Transition" Archived 8 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, East European Constitutional Review, Volume 7 Number 2, Spring 1998
- ^ "Carol names body to draft chapter of people's rights", The New York Times, 13 February 1938, p. 1
- ^ a b AP, "Rumania Seeking to Patch Up Alliance With France, Britain", The Washington Post, 12 February 1938, p. X1
- The Manchester Guardian, 31 May 1938, p. 6
- ^ "Rumania Made a Fascist State by King's Edict", Chicago Daily Tribune, 21 February 1938, p. 1
- Manchester Guardian, 31 March 1938, p. 6
- ^ "Rumanian Cabinet Resigns to Form New Government", The Christian Science Monitor, 30 March 1938, p. 1
- Babeş-Bolyai Universitysite
- ^ "Rumanian Cabinet Gives Fascist Salute to Carol", The New York Times, 2 January 1939, p. 1
- ^ "Rumanian Premier Very Ill" in The New York Times 1 February 1939, pg. 7
- ^ "Shifts in Rumanian Cabinet Extend Authoritarian Rule", The Christian Science Monitor, p. 7
- ^ "Rumania will honor body of patriarch" in The New York Times 8 March 1939, pg. 8
- ^ "Obituary", The New York Times, 15 March 1939; p. 29
- ^ a b c d Paul A. Shapiro, Faith, Murder, Resurrection: The Iron Guard and the Romanian Orthodox Church, in Kevin P. Spicer, Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust, 2007, Indiana University Press pp. 147–150
- Manchester Guardian, 7 March 1939, page 6
- The Manchester Guardian5 June 1936, p. 10
- ISBN 90-04-07599-2p. 116
- ^ "Concordat approved by Rumanian Senate", in The New York Times, 27 May 1929, pg. 7
- ISBN 0-631-23203-6p. 355
- ISBN 0-8223-1241-7pp. 177–178
- ^ a b c William O. Oldson (September 2002). "Alibi for prejudice: Eastern Orthodoxy, the Holocaust, and Romanian nationalism". East European Quarterly. 36 (3): 303–304. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Johan Martinus Snoek, The Grey Book. A Collection of Protests against antisemitism and the Persecution of Jews issued by Non-Roman Catholic Churches and Church Leaders during Hitler's Rule, Van Gorcum & Comp, Assen, 1969 (Guttenberg text)
- Time Magazine, March 28, 1938
- ISBN 0-521-77478-0p. 70
- ^ "Manifestări dedicate patriarhului Miron Cristea" Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Ziarul Lumina, 19 July 2007
- ^ "Romania bank to review 'anti-Semitic' Cristea coin", BBC Online, 6 August 2010
- ^ Romania: We Will Not Withdraw Coin Depicting anti-Semitic Leader, haaretz.com, 20 August 2010
- ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 363.