Talk:Church of Romania

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Revision as of 15:18, March 21, 2005 by James (talk | contribs) (Romanian saints, monasteries etc.)
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I'm a convert in the Church of Romania and am pretty fluent in Romanian, having worked there for some considerable time. I have never heard the Orthodox faith referred to as 'Dreapta credinta' and the only time I've ever seen 'Dreptcredincios' used is as a title for a saint - i.e. 'Dreptcredinciosul Voievod Stefan cel Mare si Sfant' (The Right-Beleiving Voievod - sort of like Prince, but no real translation - Stephen the Great and Holy). Usually, contrary to what is stated in this article, the faith is known as 'Ortodoxie' or 'Crestinism Ortodox' and the Orthodox faithful are known as Ortodox(a) pl. Ortodocsi. I'd cheerfully correct this (I've corrected the odd word of Romanian already where there were problems) but I don't want to step on anyone's toes. If whoever originally wrote the article thinks my comments are incorrect, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me some justification for what I see as problems - perhaps this is normal language in some regions of Romania, but it certainly isn't in Moldova and Bucovina, in my experience.

Well, the Romanian Orthodox Church is a bit strange in that it uses several words for the same thing. So sometimes it keeps the greek/slavonic word, sometimes it translates it (see the use of both 'slava' and 'marire' for glory). Referring to Orthodoxy as "dreapta credinta" is not very common, unless it's in some context - thus, in a sermon the priest may urge the faithful to uphold "dreapta credinta." The only other context where I know of the translation is in the service itself: at the Great Entrance, when the priest says "May the Lord remember you, orthodox Christians..." he says "dreptmaritorilor crestini." It's similar at the end of Vespers. Otherwise, you're right - the faith itself is known as 'ortodoxie.' I hope this helps. Virgil
This article as it now stands is largely taken from Wikipedia:Romanian Orthodox Church. I'm the one who imported it the way that it is, and I don't know either way regarding the issue you raise. You'd know better than I and are free to edit the article according to your knowledge. Please feel free to register for an account and help us out! --Rdr. Andrew 10:06, 10 Mar 2005 (CST)
Thanks Virgil and Rdr Andrew. I've now signed up for an account. What I'd most like to contribute to the site are articles on Romanian saints, monasteries etc. Ethnically, I'm German/Czech by way of Britain but I feel more like an adopted Romanian nowadays, having married into a Romanian family and as I find that there appears to be very little on the web about Romanian saints, traditions etc. when compared to Greek or Russian, I think this would be a worthwhile thing to do. I agree with you, Virgil, regarding the use of dreapta credinta etc. - it simply didn't register with me that way because you could just as easily write 'True Faith' or 'True Christians' in English without it referring to Orthodoxy. Romanian is a second language for me after all. I think maybe the wording of the article should be changed to something along the lines of 'also sometimes called...' rather than 'usually called...'. What do you think? --James
Your suggestions for contribution sound excellent—the Church of Romania is, after all, the 2nd largest Orthodox Church in the world, and I fear many English-speakers know very little about it. (I honestly wish that there were more of a Romanian ecclesiastical presence in the West.) --Rdr. Andrew 08:43, 11 Mar 2005 (CST)
Unfortunately, I think my brother would be in a much better position than I am to contribute the lives of Romanian saints. However, I'll do the little that I can. For starters, I ran into this and I guess I'll start with a translation of one of the brief synopses found there. --virgil

Tertullian

I removed the link to the Tertullian treatise, mainly because it doesn't seem to have any reference to Dacia in it. Am I missing something? --Rdr. Andrew 12:45, 17 Mar 2005 (CST)

  • I don't think you missed anything. I didn't read the article so I'd missed it but I turned up nothing at all searching for Dacia, Geat or Get or any other Romanian tribal name variant I can think of that was used in antiquity. Even the references to Scythians (Scythia Minor was modern Dobrugea and there were Scythian tribes in North Eastern Moldova) seem to be irrelevant - merely using them as examples of heathen barbarians. I think you were right to remove the link. James 02:58, 18 Mar 2005 (CST)

Romanian saints, monasteries etc.

This is really just a question on style, but these sections are growing larger and, if I can do so, I will expand the contents a lot in the future. Should the titles, then, be made into links to the appropriate categories, or should I leave them as they are? If they're left as they are, should I add a link to, for example, every saint I add (which, hopefully, will be an awful lot) or just leave a few as examples? I will follow any advice given. I know enough about at least 6 or 7 monasteries (and a few churches and cathedrals) to write at least a short article on them and have access to the lives of at least a couple of hundred Romanian saints, so if I carry on the way I have been the lists are likely to get umanageable. On the issue of saints, monasteries and the like, I'm in the process of trying to get permission to use images from web sites to illustrate them, particularly icons. Assuming I'm given permission, I will add them as soon as possible. James 07:17, 21 Mar 2005 (CST)

I think if there are just a couple dozen or so links in a list, then keeping it in this article would probably work fine. If, however, you put in all 200 saints' lives(!) you have, it would probably be better to create a separate article with that list, and include only a "greatest hits" section in this article with a link to that big list (perhaps List of Romanian saints). --Rdr. Andrew 08:52, 21 Mar 2005 (CST)
OK, that seems reasonable. Obviously it will take me some time (probably years!) to get anywhere near the 200 saint mark, but I thought I'd best find out what to do ahead of time. I'll be very happy if I do manage to get even half of the saints I know about into OrthodoxWiki.James