MITROPOLITUL PRIMAT MIRON CRISTEA ȘI ROLUL ACESTUIA ÎN DESFĂȘURAREA ÎNCORONĂRII DE LA ALBA IULIA
Primate Metropolitan Miron Cristea and His Role in the Coronation Ceremony at Alba Iulia

Summary/Abstract: The coronation of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie at Alba Iulia on the 15th of October 1922 was to become one of those emblematic and historic moments in the process of Romania becoming whole. Consequently, this was the beginning of an ample and ambitious project, which aimed for the construction of a Coronation Cathedral, the preparation of the anointment ceremony of the two sovereigns, immortalising the enthronement of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, for which a special commission was established. As expected, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Primate Metropolitan Miron Cristea, the future patriarch, received an extremely important role, that of conceiving the protocol and the liturgical structure of the religious services during the Coronation ceremony, the hierarch being given a free hand to sketch the project in the first stage. Gradually, however, in a political, religious and even quite complicated diplomatic context, Miron Cristea found himself faced with more or less camouflaged imperatives regarding the change or complete removal of certain ceremony elements considered unacceptable by King Ferdinand I. Consequently, the role the Primate Metropolitan expected the Romanian Orthodox Church to play in the Coronation ceremonies turned into a secondary one, an almost marginal one. It was proved that driving away from the „Byzantine Symphony”, the relations between Monarchy and the Church were entering a new phase of their relationship, one in which interdependence was no longer a sine qua non condition.

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