Monday, September 3, 2018, from 09:45 to 10:30 a.m., His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel officiated the blessing service of the National Cathedral’s six bells on the ground.
Consequently, the bells will be mounted together with their metallic structure in the Bell Tower on the western façade of the new Patriarchal Cathedral, at a height of 60 meters.
The blessing of the exterior of the bells will be followed by an additional on the inside blessing after the bells will be installed in the bell tower.
Bells first appeared in China and then India 3000 years before Christ, but they were static – the sound was created by striking with a hammer. However, European bells create the sound through the free movement of the bell and its clapper (swinging).
In the Church, the bell tone represents God’s voice calling the living to prayer and communion, weeps the dead, and protects the city or the village from thunderstorms and lightning. From a social-cultural point of view, church bells are a characteristic of Christian European culture.
The bells of the National Cathedral were made at Grassmayr bell foundry in Innsbruck, Austria. They have a 15-year warranty and a lifespan of over 400 years. They were brought to Romania on May 19, 2017.
The six bells weigh together 33 tons. The big bell, dedicated to all national heroes, weighs over 25 tons, with a height and diameter of about 3 meters. It will be heard as far as 15 km away during important events and feast days.
The sound quality is ensured by the purity of the bronze alloy used by the Tirol bell foundry, including 78% electrolytic copper with a purity level of 99.99%, and 22% electrolytic tin with the same purity level.
Following the Christian tradition regarding the inscriptions upon bells, each of the six bells is inscribed with the Romanian Patriarchate’s coat of arms, the effigy of Patriarch Daniel during whose pastorship the National Cathedral was built, the Patriarchal Cross, and the following lettering: ‘Blessing of Romanian Patriarch Daniel for the National Cathedral – 1918 Centennial – 2018’.
The six bells were paid exclusively with funds of the Romanian Patriarchate, not from public funds.
NOTE: Video and pictures (without watermark) from the event, as well as from the mounting and placing of the bells, may be requested by journalists from the Romanian Patriarchate’s Trinitas TV station and the Basilica News Agency.
Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate
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