GB 10-12/2019

Address at the opening of the works of the Autumn Pastoral-Missionary Conference of Clergy of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Bucharest, November 11-12 2019, Great Hall of the National Children’s Palace, with the theme „2019 – the Commemorative Year of Patriarchs Nicodim Munteanu and Iustin Moisescu and the Church book translators in the Romanian Patriarchy”.

Every nation have an epic. The Russians have the Song of Igor’s army, the French have the Song of Roland, and the Germans have the Song of the Nibelungs. We Romanians, not the last of the peoples of God’s earth, have the epic of Saint Parascheva.Saint Parascheva proves us today through her life, that through the Cross of Christ, we learn the true value of life and we correctly establish the relationship between body and soul, between mortal and immortal.

The sermon brings into question the „bowing of the soul”, a disease from which many contemporary people suffer. The causes of this spiritual illness are: the abuse of technology (telephone, social networks, etc.) and too much waste in external details. The proposed remedy is to return to oneself and to God.

The evangelist Matthew addresses especially the Christians from the chosen people for whom the messianic identity of Jesus Christ was fundamental. Thus, the New Testament opens with a ternary genealogy that provides the image of the uninterrupted continuity of the divine election. The picture of the Savior’s Davidic offspring is depicted with the inspiration of liberating truth, not hiding human sinfulness and revealing God’s freedom to manifest His faithfulness in sometimes unpredictable ways. Joseph embodies the tension between David’s expectation and the birth of Christ in the Virgin Mary. If the role of Joseph is essential for the bodily eyes of the people, because it allows the integration of the Infant into the tradition and customs of the Jewish people, in the case of the Virgin Mary her real and full motherhood is the human source of the incarnation of the Son of God, the supreme limit to which humanity waiting for the Messiah could rise, offering its own nature to the One Who created human nature.

Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu was the second Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and succeeded Patriarch Miron Cristea (1925-1939), being enthroned after his death and ruling for nine years, from 1939 until his death, in 1948. After the death of Metropolitan Pimen Georgescu (1853-1934), the seat of the Metropolitan Church of Moldova and Suceava was declared vacant, elections were held on January 23, 1935. Metropolitan Nicodim obtained 103 votes out of the total of 156, being designated as Metropolitan of Moldova. On January 30, 1935, the royal investiture was followed at the Royal Palace, and its official installation in the capital of Moldova, the city of Iasi, took place on February 3, 1935, in the presence of Patriarch Miron Cristea, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan of Transylvania, Bishop Visarion Puiu of Bălți, Alexandru Lapedatu, Minister of Cults, Osvald Racovitză, mayor of the city of Iasi, et al. After being elected Metropolitan of Moldova, Nicodim Munteanu, having a rich activity as a writer and translator, continued to write further, his first texts being found in the pages of the magazine Mitropolia Moldovei. Metropolitan Nicodim published in the theological journal Mitropolia Moldovei, from no. 3 (March 1935) until no. 12 (December 1935), a total number of 13 texts. These texts can be divided into several categories: 1) pastoral letters; 2) occasional speeches; 3) greetings (Easter, Christmas and New Year); 4) official documents (notifications and metropolitan decisions).

The liturgical text of the Pentecostarion offers a hermeneutic perspective to the „Thomas episode”, to which not much attention was been given by biblical theology. From this point of view, it is a challenge for biblical scholars to discover the relationship between the biblical and the liturgical text. The two sources, biblical and liturgical, complement each other and offer a truthful approach to the figure of Apostle Thomas, in a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Both the biblical text and the liturgical text provide the resources to discover Thomas and to outline his image as an Apostle and his place among the Apostles in the history of salvation.

This study presents a summary analysis of the personality of Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu based on the literature from the interwar period and from the post-communist period. The essential biographical data of the hierarch are mentioned, the attitude towards state power during the regime of monarchical authority of King Carol II (February 10, 1938-6 Sept. 1940), the legionary regime (Sept. 14, 1940-23 Jan. 1941), the military-Antonescu regime (1941 -1944) and the communist regime (1944-1947). His scholarly activity is also highlighted: the translations of some theological works from the Russian language, the translation, together with Gala Galaction and Vasile Radu, of the Bible from 1936, and other biblical and liturgical works. Additionally, the Patriarch had an intensive pastoral-missionary activity, as it is mirrored in many of his pastoral-catechetical works for priests and believers.

Patriarch Iustin Moisescu (1910-1986) had an essential contribution in the development of the Romanian Exegesis of the New Testament. His doctoral thesis dedicated to Evagrie din Pont (Evagrie din Pont, Life, writings and teaching) was one of the first scholarly international monographs on a Christian mystic. A study of the origin and originality of the parables of the Savior Jesus Christ followed, and a volume of Biblical exegesis (The Activity of the Holy Apostle Paul in Athens. Acts 17, 16-34, Iasi, 1946). Another work is The Church Hierarchy in the Apostolic Times (Craiova, 1955), followed by a study on the occasion of the 19th century anniversary of the Apostolic Synod of Jerusalem, entitled „St. Paul and the life of the most important communities Christians of the apostolic age”. The article ends with the presentation of cultural activities and the special interest shown by Iustin Moisescu, Metropolitan of Moldova and later Patriarch of Romania, for the restoration of churches and buildings of great historical value.

The oldest sources of Christian life in Romania (the treasure of liturgical books, needed for cultic activity, together with dogmatic, hagiographic, patristic and canonical literature) were directly received from Byzance, in Greek or by Slavic affiliation.

In our presentation, we will insist only on the moments that have deeply influenced the development of orthodox spirituality, of the Romanian language and literature. We will highlight the beginnings of the printing of Romanian language translations, taking into account the intense influence and circulation that printed books had, compared to manuscripts. We will not neglect the especially important aspect of the introduction of the Romanian language in cultic activity, a process that was realised in stages by scholarly hierarchs, with the tacit agreement of the Eastern patriarchs. The second part of the study addresses the presence of Saint Paisie from Neamț and the contribution of his translation school to the development of Romanian literature. The modern period of the Romanian literature has its beginnings also in the translations made by scholar monks in the monasteries from Moldova and Wallachia: Neamț, Dragomirna, Secu, Căldărușani, Cernica etc. The goal set by these translators was the soul’s salvation of those who read. The readers, by the help of the saintly texts, would learn how to repent and change their life, according to the Gospel of Christ, in order to acquire eternal life. Moreover, the translations have a moral and social practical utility. By its highly elevated expression, the liturgical language became a stilistic model and an inspiration source for Romanian poets and writers. Moreover, the religious books translators have enriched theological literature, but also Romanian literature, making an essential contribution to the development of the liturgical language and to the Romanian literary language.