Difference between revisions of "Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania"
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'''The Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania''' ({{lang-ro|Biserica Ortodoxă de Stil Vechi din România}}) is an [[Orthodox Church]] in [[Romania|Romania]], remaining [[Orthodox Churches outside communion with Universal Orthodoxy|out of communion with Universal Orthodoxy]], using the [[Julian calendar]], [[Byzantine rite]] and [[Romanian language]] in worship. | '''The Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania''' ({{lang-ro|Biserica Ortodoxă de Stil Vechi din România}}) is an [[Orthodox Church]] in [[Romania|Romania]], remaining [[Orthodox Churches outside communion with Universal Orthodoxy|out of communion with Universal Orthodoxy]], using the [[Julian calendar]], [[Byzantine rite]] and [[Romanian language]] in worship. | ||
| − | It arose after a number of clergy and laity separated from the [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox Church]] after the latter adopted the [[New Julian Calendar|New Julian calendar]] in 1924 | + | It arose after a number of clergy and laity separated from the [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox Church]] after the latter adopted the [[New Julian Calendar|New Julian calendar]] in 1924. |
The Church has 130 parish churches, in which 160 priests and 26 deacons serve. Six male monasteries are inhabited by 290 monks, and 7 female monasteries are home to 510 nuns. The number of parishioners is estimated at 2-3 million people. In the [[Slătiora Monastery|Slătiora Monastery]] — the spiritual and administrative center — about 100 monastics serve<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://minds.by/article/68.html |title=A. V. Slesarev. Non-canonical Orthodoxy: Romanian Old Calendar Orthodox Church |access-date=2008-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504035514/http://minds.by/article/68.html |archive-date=2009-05-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>. | The Church has 130 parish churches, in which 160 priests and 26 deacons serve. Six male monasteries are inhabited by 290 monks, and 7 female monasteries are home to 510 nuns. The number of parishioners is estimated at 2-3 million people. In the [[Slătiora Monastery|Slătiora Monastery]] — the spiritual and administrative center — about 100 monastics serve<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://minds.by/article/68.html |title=A. V. Slesarev. Non-canonical Orthodoxy: Romanian Old Calendar Orthodox Church |access-date=2008-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504035514/http://minds.by/article/68.html |archive-date=2009-05-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>. | ||
Latest revision as of 19:34, 27 August 2025
Template:Not to be confused Template:Christian Church The Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania (Template:Lang-ro) is an Orthodox Church in Romania, remaining out of communion with Universal Orthodoxy, using the Julian calendar, Byzantine rite and Romanian language in worship.
It arose after a number of clergy and laity separated from the Romanian Orthodox Church after the latter adopted the New Julian calendar in 1924.
The Church has 130 parish churches, in which 160 priests and 26 deacons serve. Six male monasteries are inhabited by 290 monks, and 7 female monasteries are home to 510 nuns. The number of parishioners is estimated at 2-3 million people. In the Slătiora Monastery — the spiritual and administrative center — about 100 monastics serve[1].
History
In 1924, the Romanian Orthodox Church adopted the New Julian Calendar. Hieromonk Arsenie (Cotea) (Template:Lang-ro), who arrived from Mount Athos, led the Old Calendarist movement, but was soon expelled from the country.
On February 19, 1924, the "Organization of Adherents of the Orthodox Old Calendarist Church of Romania" was registered in the court of the city of Suceava.
In 1930, Hieromonk Glycerie (Tănase) began active work on the construction of Old Calendarist churches. With the funds of the already formed Old Calendar parish communities, in 1931-1932 churches were built in the villages of Rădășeni (Suceava County), Brusturi, Urecheni (Neamț County), Râșca, Bogdanești, Drăgușeni (Suceava County) and in the village of Balș (Iași County). The intensity of church construction increased with each passing year[2].
This led to the fact that in 1936 the followers of Hieromonk Glikery had almost four dozen churches, located mainly in the region of Moldova. In 1935, Hieromonk Zosima, Varukh and Gymnasios from Mount Athos joined Glycerios; the need for new clergy remained quite acute. In order to receive episcopal consecration, Hieromonk Glycerios went to Athens in 1936, where by that time the Old Calendar Synod of the Churches of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece had already been formed under the chairmanship of Chrysostomos (Kavourides). However, the Greek hierarchs did not dare to take this step. After waiting for two months, Hieromonk Glycerios, together with his companions, went to Yugoslavia, where the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR was located at that time. Upon arrival in Belgrade, Hieromonk Glikery met Archbishop Anastasius (Gribanovsky). The Romanian Old Calendarists received from him a recommendation to turn to Bishop Seraphim (Lyade) of Vienna in Budapest, who could ordain priests, to resolve the issue. The monks found Bishop Seraphim, who was absent from Budapest, in Vienna, but he refused to fulfill their request[3].
Immediately upon returning to Romania, Hieromonk Glikery continued his active church-building activities and in a short time churches were built in more than ten villages.
In September 1936, the Patriarch of Romania Miron (Cristea), who in 1938 also became Prime Minister of Romania, launched a campaign of persecution against the followers of the Romanian Old Calendarists. Mass arrests of both clergy and ordinary parishioners were carried out. By direct order of Patriarch Miron, all churches and monasteries built by the Old Calendarists were taken away (in the Kukovsky Monastery, five laymen were thrown into the monastery well, where they drowned, accepting a martyr's death[4]).
In 1937, Hieromonk Glikery was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Upon his release, he was again arrested on a false denunciation, allegedly for ties to the terrorist organization "Iron Guard", but was soon released, after which, together with Hierodeacon David (Bidașcu) (Template:Lang-ro), he retreated into the impenetrable forests. Fearing a second conviction, both wanderers lived in dugouts for about two years and were in an illegal position.
In 1941, they won over the inhabitants of the village of Slătioara in Suceava County. According to the vision that Glikerii spoke of, terrible apocalyptic times were approaching inexorably, one of the signs of which was the calendar reform in the Church. Moreover, 1982 was declared the year of the coming of the antichrist. Eschatologists The panic that gripped the inhabitants of Slatioara united them firmly around the newcomers, turning the settlement into a center of Romanian Old Calendarism.
Some improvement in the attitude towards the Old Calendarist Church occurred in Romania after the establishment of the communist regime in the late 1940s. Old Calendarist parishes received state registration, but many lay believers and clergy were subjected to repression. In 1980, Eucharistic communion was established with the Greek Old Calendarist Synod of Callistus. After the collapse of the Synod of Callistus in 1984, the Romanian Old Calendarist Church maintained relations with the Synod of Resistance that emerged from its fragments.
On June 28, 1999, the canonization of Metropolitan Glycerius (Tanase) took place in the Slatioari Transfiguration Monastery, which was attended by pilgrims from many countries of the world, jurisdictionally belonging to the Old Calendar churches and the ROCOR[5].
On March 5, 2003, the official recording of the new name "Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania" was made.
From December 9 to 12, 2013, a delegation of the the "Chrysostomos" Synod of the True Orthodox Church of Greece, headed by Archbishop of Athens Kallinikos (Sarantopoulos), visited Romania, where they held talks with Metropolitan Vlasie (Mogyrzan) and the hierarchs of the Romanian Old Calendarist Church[6][7], culminating in the establishment of Eucharistic communion on March 18, 2014.
On October 6, 2019, the consecration of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Slătiora took place. It is the main cathedral of the ROCOR, the construction of which began in the early 1990s.[8].
On August 14, 2022, the Romanian Old Calendarist Orthodox Church broke communion with the Chrysostomos Synod (primate — Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Kallinikos (Sarandopoulos)), the Bulgarian Old Calendarist Church (primate — Metropolitan Photius (Siromakhov) of Triaditsa) and the ROCOR(A) (primate — Metropolitan Agaphangel (Pashkovsky)), justifying this by their confession of the heresy of “Cyprianism”[9][10].
On August 29, the Synodal Assembly elected Bishop Evloghie (Nika) as the new First Hierarch. On September 1, 2024, his enthronement took place at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in Slătiora<ref>{{cite web|title=P.S. Evloghie Nica, noul mitropolit al Bisericii Ortodoxe de Stil Vechi, întronizat astăzi, 1 septemb
