Bessarabia Metropolitan Petru urges Romanians to live united in faith

In a message on Sunday marking the Day of Romanians Everywhere, His Eminence Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia stressed that the Romanian Orthodox Church stands by the Romanians from all over the world, inviting them to live united in faith.

“We are witnessing all the trials that our sons and daughters are going through, and we are glad to find them gathered around the Eucharistic Chalice and the Christian mission to do good, the most telling proof of which is our joint effort to help the Ukrainian brothers who have gone taken refuge, a mission that only together we can accomplish completely,” the Metropolitan noted.

Metropolitan Petru referred to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which was reactivated to be close to the historical Romanian communities across the Prut River.

“This year marks 30 years since, by reactivating the Metropolis of Bessarabia, historical truth is restored, and our sons are called under the shadow of the Cross and the tricolour banner. For 30 years since then, with time and without time, together with all the church clergy and the monastic order, we have been striving to keep the torches alive, from which all the people who feel Romanian-like to ignite the holy longing for salvation,” His Eminence Metropolitan Petru remembered.

In this context, we joyfully remember all the communities under our omophorion, praying with us for “the right-believing Romanian people here and everywhere”, the souls that vibrate at the hearing of our ancestral language and that praise God in one thought and feeling.”

“Thus, we sincerely hope that all this endeavour will be fruitful and that all our brothers of one faith and one nation to whom this Sunday is dedicated may not forget their holy mission, which St. John Jacob the Chosebite, himself a migrant of the Spirit, reminds them of: “Wandering sons of my country, lost among foreigners / Do not forget your mission, as Romanians and Christians,” Metropolitan Petru concluded.

The Day of Romanians Everywhere is marked annually on the last Sunday in May. In addition to Romanians in the diaspora, who have migrated abroad for jobs and a better life, there are also Romanian historical communities around Romania.

These are divided into two categories: Romanians from the territories that were once part of Romania: Bessarabia (today’s Republic of Moldova), Bugeac and Chernivtsi (in today’s Ukraine); respectively, Romanians who were never part of the Romanian state, but speak the Romanian language and were formed as a nation at the confluence between the expanding Roman civilization and the local Dacian and Thracian civilization: Romanians (“Vlachs”) from Transcarpathia (Historical Maramureș); Romanians (“Vlachs”) from the Timok Valley (in Serbia and Bulgaria); Romanians from Vojvodina; the Aromanians spread in the Balkans.

Photography courtesy of the Metropolis of Bessarabia

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