The relationship between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Royal House of Romania during the interwar period
The relationship between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Royal House of Romania during the interwar period

Summary/Abstract: The Romanian tradition marks an intense and remarkably tight collaboration between the sovereign institution and the Orthodox Church over the centuries. Strongly influenced by the Byzantine spirit and heritage, the Romanian extra-Carpathian territories fostered a symbiotic relationship between laic and religious power. The interwar period captures the drift from kings Charles I and Ferdinand’s Catholicism to Charles II and notably Michael I’s Orthodoxy. A particular case is represented by Queen Marie, the protestant who, falling in love with Romania, deeply imprinted not only the Romanian culture and reality, but also Orthodoxy on her soul. Our paper presents the evolution of these transformations and interlinkages without intending an exhaustive approach of the topic. Moving from the stiffness of collaboration obeying the letter of the law and the agreements between Ferdinand and the Romanian Orthodox Church, to Charles II’s reign who designates Patriarch Miron Cristea to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair, we identify the plurality of forms in which this collaboration took place. In a permanently changing Romanian socio-political context, the relations between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Royal House of Romania represented an important dimension of interwar-Romania realities.

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