Religion
Maybe not so many of the foreigners know that the Romanian nation is one of the first Christian people; that we have born like this, because the one who spoke to us about Christ’s Gospel was Saint Andrew, one of the 12 Apostles of Christ, and who is now Romania’s patron saint and protector.
When somebody wants to do a “religious circuit” of Romania, he has to think it over very well before making his choice about the churches and monasteries he wants to visit. And this happens because he has many beauties to select from.
In Romania, we have well known regions, like Bucovina or Moldavia, where there are some famous sacred spaces that belong to UNESCO patrimony, like Voroneţ Moldoviţa, Suceviţa, Arbore or Humor. The famous “blue of Voroneţ” it is frequently spoken about; it is a natural color, which prevails on the walls of the church with the same name, that is some time reminded of as The Sixtin Chapel of the Orient. Painted both on the inside and on the outside walls, the frescos of these churches have helped the ones who hadn’t been able to read and understand the content of the Great Book, the Bible. There are also places digged in the stone, like the one of Nămăieşti, Bistriţa, Turnu or Basarabi. But all of these are connected to Romanians’ faith found in their religion: the orthodox one.
But the orthodoxy is not the only one existing on nowadays territory of Romania. For example, in Transilvania there are entire villages inhabited by Hungarians or some people of German origin, called “saşi”, who have their own traditions and faith. The fortified churches of Transilvania played the role of true citadels in the Middle Age, places where women and children used to hide during the war. It is said also that the villages of Transilvania are the places where the ancient customs were best kept; this is the reason why they always come back, when they have the chance, to their native land, to take their portion of “at home”. This proves that, even living in country with a higher life standard, they miss that special feeling which they cannot find anywhere else: they need to feel they are “at home”.
So, here there are also Roman-Catholic or Greek Catholic churches, as well as synagogues or mosques, these being concentrated on the seacoast of the Black Sea.
In Romania, the churches are full of people on Sundays, nowadays. Nobody turns them down any more; quite the opposite, every day some new churches are built. The foreign tourist is amazed when, travelling through the Romanian villages, he discover a magical nook of an unknown world where the people are happier to give money for a new church than to think of their own material prosperity.
There are places where thousands of people come from all over the country and they wait for hours only to be able the sacred bones of a Saint. For example, if you happen to arrive Iaşi near the 14th of October, when the Romanians celebrate the Saint Parascheva, you see that it is about piousness, faith and a lot of patience, qualities without which this hardly tried people couldn’t have existed any more.
All the three main events in a human life- christening, wedding and burial- couldn’t be conceived without the faith in God, without the presence of the Church, God’s House on Earth.
Romania is the country where there is a “Joy Graveyard”; the one from Săpânţa, Maramureş. “Could something like this be possible?”- every foreigner would ask. Oh, yes, it is very much possible, because most of the Romanians think of death with peace, tranquility and serenity; the joyful colors of the crosses from the graveyard of Săpânţa are a sure prove of the faith that “in the beyond world” will be better. And maybe this is the essence of our life on Earth; maybe our continuous struggle should be rewarded by this hope. |
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