Sunday marked the beginning of Women’s Month in Romania, the first year the observance is being officially celebrated after Parliament approved the initiative and it was promulgated by President Nicușor Dan.
According to the explanatory memorandum accompanying the adopted legislation, the law aims to highlight “the positive impact women have had on Romanian society in fields such as education, healthcare, culture, science, sport and politics, as well as on society as a whole.”
The initiators drew inspiration from similar initiatives in countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. March, the first month of spring, was chosen as it is traditionally associated in Romania with celebrating femininity through the offering of mărțișoare (spring tokens) and honouring motherhood on March 8, International Women’s Day.
Women’s Month in Romania coincides with the “Month for Life,” as March has for more than a decade been dedicated to the March for Life and related initiatives promoting support for women and their children—born and unborn.
The Church and women
The celebration of the Annunciation in March is also significant within the Church, highlighting the maternal vocation of women and their important role in the community.
Women attained their full dignity and recognition of equality with the spread of Christianity, which accords the Mother of God the highest spiritual honour and a central role in the salvation of the world.
In 2022, on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, Patriarch Daniel emphasised that Christian women in the life of the Church have followed Christ’s will, just as did the Mother of God, the Myrrh-bearers, the Holy Martyrs, the Venerable Mothers and all the holy women commemorated in the Church’s calendar.
On this basis, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church designated the third Sunday after Pascha as the Sunday of Christian Women, underscoring “the importance of women’s missionary work in the life of the Church and Romanian society.”
The Holy Synod has also proclaimed 2026 as the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women of the Calendar (Myrrh-bearers, martyrs, monastics, wives and mothers).
Recently, at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest, the general proclamation took place for the canonisation of 16 holy women, including martyrs, nuns, princely wives, mothers of saints and confessors of the faith.
Women in family and society
Women give birth to and nurture life, shaping the character of children through education and personal example. The importance of this vocation is reflected both in the designation of 2026 as a commemorative year within the Romanian Patriarchate and in the lives of the newly canonised saints.
Two editorial projects of the Basilica News Agency are dedicated in a special way to honouring women during the 2026 Commemorative Year:
- Digital Matericon, presenting the holy women commemorated each month in the Orthodox Calendar;
- Romanian Women in History, featuring Romanian women—from scholars to queens—who have shaped the nation’s history and contributed to the Romania known today.
Both initiatives underline that women have accomplished the same feats as men—martyrdom, asceticism, exploration, scientific achievement and community leadership—while affirming that their distinctive and natural vocation, in which they remain unparalleled, is motherhood, understood as an expression of self-sacrificial love.
Photo: Mircea Florescu
