26<\/p>\n
March 1977 \u2013 JUSTINIAN MARINA (baptised Ioan), Patriarch of the<\/p>\n
Romanian Orthodox Church passed away. Studies at the Theological<\/p>\n
Seminary of “Saint Nicholas\u201d of R\u00e2mnicu V\u00e2lcea (1915 \u2013 1923) and at the<\/p>\n
Faculty of Theology of Bucharest (1925 \u2013 1929), teacher in<\/p>\n
Olteanca-V\u00e2lcea (1923 \u2013 1924) and in B\u0103beni-V\u00e2lcea (1924 \u2013 1930), in<\/p>\n
parallel parish priest in B\u0103beni (1924 \u2013 1932), director of the<\/p>\n
Theological Seminary and servant priest at the Episcopal Cathedral of<\/p>\n
R\u00e2mnicu V\u00e2lcea (1932-1933), parish priest at the church of “Saint<\/p>\n
George\u201d in the same locality 81933 \u2013 1945).<\/p>\n
He became a widower<\/p>\n
and, in 1945, he is elected assistant hierarch to the Archdiocese of<\/p>\n
Ia\u0219i, with the title of “Vasluianul\u201d (1945 \u2013 1947); locum tenens of the<\/p>\n
Metropolitan See of Ia\u0219i (since August 1947), Archbishop of Ia\u0219i and<\/p>\n
Metropolitan (elected on 19 November 1947, enthroned on 28 December);<\/p>\n
Patriarch locum tenens (since February 1948); on 24 May 1948 he is<\/p>\n
elected, and on 6 June 1948 enthroned as Archbishop of Bucharest,<\/p>\n
metropolitan of Ungrowallachia and Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox<\/p>\n
Church, serving till his death.<\/p>\n
As Patriarch, he remains in the<\/p>\n
history of the Romanian Church through his well-known “Social<\/p>\n
Discipleship\u201d, in which he knew how to give a new orientation to the<\/p>\n
activity of the Church, in the conditions of life provided by the<\/p>\n
communist regime, in spite of all difficulties. During his 29 years of<\/p>\n
patriarchal service, a series of events and changes occurred which<\/p>\n
raised the prestige of the Romanian Orthodoxy a lot in the Christian<\/p>\n
world and made him a representative personality of the entire Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n
From 19-20 October 1948, the Holy Synod voted a new Statutes for the<\/p>\n
Organisation and Functioning of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the<\/p>\n
Patriarchate having only 5 metropolitan sees at the time, with 13<\/p>\n
suffragan eparchies, plus 2 Romanian eparchies in Diaspora. In 1950, the<\/p>\n
Holy Synod decided \u2013 for the first time \u2013 to pass a few hierarchs,<\/p>\n
monks and Romanian faithful among the saints and to generalise the cult<\/p>\n
of certain saints whose relics are in our country; their solemn<\/p>\n
canonisation took place in 1955. In 1948 the Orthodox theological<\/p>\n
education was re-organised; from that year till 1989 University<\/p>\n
Theological Institutes operated (Bucharest and Sibiu) and six<\/p>\n
Theologcal Seminaries (in Bucharest, Buz\u0103u, Neam\u021b Monastery, Cluj,<\/p>\n
Craiova and Caransebe\u0219). New church periodicals were edited and the old<\/p>\n
ones continued to appear: “Romanian Orthodox Church\u201d (since 1874),<\/p>\n
“Ortodoxia\u201d, “Theological Studies\u201d (central magazines), “Voice of the<\/p>\n
Church\u201d (of the Metropolitan See of Ungrowallachia), “Metropolitan See<\/p>\n
of Moldova and Suceava\u201d, “Metropolitan See of Transylvania\u201d, ”<\/p>\n
Metropolitan See of Oltenia\u201d and “Metropolitan See of Banat\u201d<\/p>\n
(metropolitan magazines), besides a series of periodicals edited by the<\/p>\n
Romanian Orthodox communities abroad.<\/p>\n
The Synodal Bible was<\/p>\n
re-edited in two editions (1968 and 1975), the New Testament (1951), all<\/p>\n
the books of rite (each of them in several editions), as well as almost<\/p>\n
all the manuals necessary for the theological university and seminary<\/p>\n
education, plus a series of works with theological and historical<\/p>\n
character written by hierarchs, professors of theology and priests or<\/p>\n
doctorate thesis. The Patriarch himself published 12 volumes with the<\/p>\n
significant title Social Discipleship (Bucharest, 1948 \u2013 1976), with all<\/p>\n
his pastoral letters, speeches and articles. He had tens of churches<\/p>\n
monuments of art restored, new churches raised, and either old or new<\/p>\n
ones painted, about one hundred museums and collections of church<\/p>\n
objects were opened, especially in the precincts of the monasteries. He<\/p>\n
took good care of the married priests, ensuring their salaries and<\/p>\n
pensions; he set up centres of social assistance for old priests and<\/p>\n
monks, for old nuns and priests\u2019 wives (at Vifor\u00e2ta Monastery).<\/p>\n
He<\/p>\n
entertained relationships with other sister Orthodox Churches and other<\/p>\n
Christian Churches. He himself paid visits, heading synodal<\/p>\n
delegations, to the following Churches: Russian (several times),<\/p>\n
Georgian (1948), Serb (1957), Bulgarian (1953, 1966 and 1971), the<\/p>\n
Ecumenical Patriarchate (1968, Patriarchate of Alexandria (1971) and of<\/p>\n
Jerusalem (1975), Church of Greece (1963, 1971 and 1975). Relations with<\/p>\n
the Old Oriental Churches were set up through mutual visits: the<\/p>\n
Patriarch visited the Ethiopian Church (1969 and 1971), Coptic Church<\/p>\n
(1969 and 1971), Syrian Church of Malabar \u2013 India (1969). Relations were<\/p>\n
set up and entertained with a series of national Roman Catholic<\/p>\n
Churches, some of them he visited heading synodal delegations; Austria<\/p>\n
(1969), Germany (1970), Belgium (1972), with the Church of the Old<\/p>\n
Catholics and the Anglican Church. Delegates of all these Churches<\/p>\n
visited Patriarch Justinian and his Church, in their turn. After 1961,<\/p>\n
when the Romanian Orthodox Church re-joined the World Council of<\/p>\n
Churches, she has participated in all the activity unfolded within the<\/p>\n
present ecumenical movement: World Council of Churches, Conference of<\/p>\n
the European Churches, etc.<\/p>\n
He was buried at “Radu Vod\u0103\u201d church of Bucharest.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
26 March 1977 \u2013 JUSTINIAN MARINA (baptised Ioan), Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church passed away. Studies at the Theological Seminary of “Saint Nicholas\u201d of R\u00e2mnicu V\u00e2lcea (1915 \u2013 1923) and at the Faculty of Theology of Bucharest (1925 \u2013 1929), teacher in Olteanca-V\u00e2lcea (1923 \u2013 1924) and in B\u0103beni-V\u00e2lcea (1924 \u2013 1930), in parallel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anniversaries-and-commemorations"],"yoast_head":"\n