Romanian students from all over the world gathered on August 16 for an Anniversary Student Congress at Putna Monastery, where they signed a final declaration. “The unity of Romanians in the future is built on the awareness of their unity in the past”, states the document.
The text defines the “fundamentals by which each generation makes its contribution to the continuation of the ideal of unity among Romanians from all over the world. These fundamentals resonate with the principle of cultural unity as the basis of national unity laid out in 1871”, at the first Putna Celebration of the Romanians from All Over the World.
The Declaration speaks about the sacred relationship between persons and peoples, about an economy that protects humanity, respect for born and unborn human life, the importance of family, the equality and complementarity of man and woman and the importance of remaining connected to what the ancestors built before us.
The statement concludes with the following exhortations:
“Let us be patriots and open to the world! Let us be upright, preserving the same ideal! Let us be united as Romanians, which is the only way to accomplish our mission in the world! So help us God.”
“A national reawakening shall be complete when such celebrations will be organized more often,” concluded Emanuel Buta, Secretary of the 2021 Putna Celebration, after presenting the final document.
The Declaration of the Anniversary Student Congress on August 16, 2021, was signed in four copies: one to be kept at Putna Monastery, another to be in the custody of the Romanian Patriarchate, a third to be offered to the Romanian Academy, and the final copy to be kept by the representative of the students who participated in the series of events entitled “The Putna Celebration – 2021. Continuity of an ideal”.
The full text of the declaration:
The Declaration of the Anniversary Student Congress, Putna, August 16, 2021
We, Romanian young people from all over the world, from Romania and from abroad, met on August 15 and 16, 2021, at the saintly Putna Monastery to honour those whose hands and souls created, in 1871, the First Celebration of the Romanians from All Over the World and the First Congress of the Romanian Students from All Over the World, with a view to affirming the ideal of unity of the Romanian people.
When preparing for the 1871 event, the Acting Committee for the First Putna Celebration wrote in its appeal to all Romanians: “Although politically separated, we are nevertheless united from River Tisa to the Black Sea and from the Dniester to the Balkans: by our common language, by our common customs and traditions, by our common religion and our common social and political creed.”
The ideal thus defined in 1871 was reiterated throughout history by the young generations of Romanians from 1904, 1926, 1957, 1966, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2011, who organized national celebrations at the tomb of the Holy Prince Stephen the Great.
In 2021, it is our turn to understand the importance of this ideal of unity and carry it forward with the awareness that, as Nicolae Teclu and Mihai Eminescu wrote, “there is no obstacle hindering our goal except for our own negligence and unwillingness.”
Thus, 150 years later, we, in workshops organized online in the days preceding the celebrations, reflected about history, analysed the present and thought of how the future could be built.
The workshop themes were as follows: History and National Identity; Liberty, Justice and Political System; Romanians from All Over the World; Education, Art and Culture; Economy, Fiscality, Entrepreneurship, Energy, Agriculture and Environment; Family, Work, Social Policies; Health; Faith and Theology.
Each working group wrote dozens of pages with the conclusions for each theme. In this Declaration, however, we consider it fitting to express the essential principles resulting from these analyses, principles that we consider as part of the fundamentals with which each generation contributes to the continuation of the ideal of unity between Romanians from all over the world.
They resonate with the principle of cultural unity as a foundation of national unity, as laid out in 1871.
Principles for continuing the ideal of unity between Romanians from all over the world
HISTORY
The most profound basis of our unity as a people is the one created by God. We are sons of Mother Romania because our Heavenly Father sowed us into this people.
Our history provides the pillars on which the Romanian civilization has been built. With luminous and less luminous moments, it shows our becoming and development as a nation. Our history is the only one we have and, more importantly, the only one on which we can build. Our interest in exploring our national identity should never cease: only by knowing our past can we consciously step into the future.
IDENTITY
We are one body created from the earth of the Romanian land and are enlivened by our faith in our mission. We are a house built by previous generations, and each new generation is called to become aware that it lives in the home of its fatherland. This awareness gives rise to respect, gratefulness and love for our ancestors, joining us with them in thought and feeling.
RESPONSIBILITY
The unity of Romanians in the future is built on the awareness of their unity in the past: the connection between them is the present generation.
Let us not forget the exhortation of a great Bukovina-born patriot, Doxaki Hurmuzachi, who wrote to his children and to all the Romanians in his 1857 testament: “Do not forget your three great and sacred duties, for which you shall answer before God, before the people and before your descendants. These duties are the fatherland, the language and the Church.”
EDUCATION
The state of Romania owes its existence to educated, brave and country-loving people. And only through educated, brave and country-loving people will it continue to exist as a state. For this reason, we have the responsibility to educate first and foremost in Romania and for Romania. Education should inspire the Romanian spirit, which should be founded on clear benchmarks and capable of major historical syntheses.
FREEDOM
Our reflection on freedom includes the legal framework, but it also transcends it, being a matter of life for all who wish to live with dignity.
Freedom is a gift from God inscribed in human nature. It finds its purpose in the attainment of a harmonious unity between man and all of existence. Spiritual corruption, which precedes other forms of corruption, makes us lose freedom. We also lose it when we use it against ourselves or our neighbours. Honest people enjoy a greater degree of freedom. Freedom increases when it is used according to its purpose.
ROMANIANS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
Every parent has a duty is to care for his or her child; likewise, Romania, as our fatherland, has an absolute duty towards the historically Romanian regions adjacent to its current national borders, as well as towards the Romanian diaspora.
Romania has the responsibility to maintain linguistic and cultural unity with Romanians from all over the world. Romania must capitalize on all possibilities and opportunities in order to make a step forward in bringing its children back home and making the national family whole again.
ECONOMY IN SUPPORT OF THE HUMANITY
The ability to create goods and services is the most basic way of connecting with each other. It can offer a concrete expression of support for one’s neighbours. Therefore, we are responsible for building highways of love expressed through concrete deeds which cross not only the Carpathian Mountains, but also unite the souls of the Romanians from everywhere through responsibility, work and effort.
With goods and services, we can build not only the economy and the society of the present, but also a patrimonial liaison heritage between the Romanians of the past, present, and future.
HEALTH
Protecting life should be our permanent preoccupation, since all human beings have supreme value, a purpose and a mission in their families, their country and in the world. From this perspective, unity also means an operational national health system as well as an honest wish held in common for the good of one’s neighbour – from conception to natural death.
Let us treat people’s suffering with empathy and love, let us respect the dignity of the human condition and let us see the sick as full persons, not only through the lens of their sickness.
It is beneficial to take advantage of medical breakthroughs and we need to do so by retaining our love for our neighbours and by respecting the freedom of conscience of medical staff and patients.
EQUAL AND COMPLEMENTARY
Equality and unity among people arise from their status of creatures of God. Our unity is also built on the complementarity of our vocations: let us not turn difference into opposites; let us rather cultivate everybody’s unique gift as a means to work good deeds in the community – to work on the Good that the whole community needs. Agriculture and scientific research, faith and arts, sports and politics, as well as all the other domains of interest and of activity are not meant to divide us further through their difference, but to unite us through the fruits of an engagement which is honest both towards the specific domain of activity and our fellow people.
FAMILY, ROMANIAN FAMILIES, THE HUMAN FAMILY
A.D. Xenopol, in his 1871 festive Speech, showed that St Stephen the Great’s deeds transcended the borders of Moldavia and made him a benefactor of all Romanians and of the whole world.
“Stephen the Great has ceased to be the hero of just a part of the lands inhabited by Romanians and has become a centre for those of the same nationality. […] The greatest men of a nation do not belong only to the sphere in which they were bound to inscribe their work; they belong to the entire nation, extending as far as the same language resonates, as far as the same traditions are found, as far as the natural connection between human souls stretches. More than this, the greatest men go beyond the limited sphere of their people and become benefactors for all mankind.”
All of mankind’s historic experience has shown the importance of family, of the nation in which one lives and of the close ties that each person and each nation has with the whole of mankind.
The ability to work beneficially for one’s nation and for the larger family of mankind is formed within the family, through the unique love between one man and one woman, who are equal in dignity and complementary in their vocations, who sacrifice themselves one for another and together for their children. How a person is formed in his or her family is how he or she shall step into the larger community of one’s country, from where he or she will be able to contribute to the common good.
Dear Romanians from everywhere,
In 1904, historian Nicolae Iorga wrote of the vigil lamp on the tomb of Holy Prince Stephen the Great and of the light of this great prince: “The vigil light on his tomb was occasionally extinguished in worse days. But the light of his memory kept shining in the great church of our nation’s conscience. Sometimes that light was brighter, sometimes dimmer. But no wind, however terrible, has ever been able to extinguish it. It still shines powerfully with the great fire of pride and gratefulness that is fuelled by all our hearts.”
We have placed a vigil lamp on the tomb of “the protector of Romanian existence”. It symbolizes the continuity of our ideal of national unity and all the good things arising from this unity.
This vigil lamp is visible – a witness of the one lit by the intercessors of the Romanian nation in the Kingdom of God, it comprises in itself the Commemorative Urn placed here by our predecessors in 1871. It is a vigil lamp in which the oil of our good wishes will burn and give light forever, even more so in moments of great trials and tribulations. It will burn for the fulfillment of national unity in every generation. This is its meaning and mission.
We organized the Anniversary Student Congress not only for ourselves, but also for future generations. May the ideal of unity expressed in 1871, the ideal of the Great Union, the ideal of freedom and truth – which was carried forth even through the period of repression of our historic and religious identity by the communist regime – remain as a duty for generations to come!
The motto of the 1871 Putna Celebration, “United in thought, united in God”, remains a continuous ideal to be fulfilled through faith in it and through sacrificial deeds adding to its eternal making.
Being aware that “the future is where the young people’s hearts are”, we call upon the young people of our generation:
Let us be patriots and open to the world!
Let us be upright, preserving the same ideal!
Let us be united as Romanians, which is the only way to accomplish our mission in the world!
So help us God.
The Putna Anniversary Student Congress was part of a series of events entitled “The Putna Celebration – 2021. Continuity of an ideal” and had as guests the His Beatitude Daniel, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and His Excellence Acad. Ioan-Aurel Pop, President of the Romanian Academy.
The Putna Celebration – 2021 was attended by hierarchs and cultural personalities. The latter participated in a subsequent Symposium entitled “Eminescu and Putna”.
The student congress opened with a message delivered by Patriarch Daniel and a speech by Acad. Ioan-Aurel Pop. The young participants then engaged in a dialogue with the two guests about identity and ideals.
The representatives of the youth organizations delivered speeches, and the Congress concluded with the reading and signing of the final Declaration.
See also:
- Patriarch Daniel’s message for Putna Celebration 150: Anniversary and commemoration for more Romanian communion
- Patriarch Daniel to pilgrims at Putna: Believers feel the maternal love of the Theotokos. She is an intercessor for the whole world
- Patriarch Daniel asks Romanians abroad to stay in constant contact with their loved ones
Photo credit: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu
