Miron Cristea (Romanian pronunciation: [miˈron ˈkriste̯a]; monastic name of Elie Cristea [eˈli.e]; 20 July 1868 – 6 March 1939) was a Romanian cleric and politician.
A bishop in Hungarian-ruled Transylvania, Cristea was elected Metropolitan-Primate of the Orthodox Church of the newly unified Greater Romania in 1919. As the Church was raised to a rank of Patriarchate, Miron Cristea was enthroned as the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1925.
In 1938, after Carol II banned political parties and established a royal dictatorship, he chose Cristea to be Prime Minister of Romania, a position in which he served for about a year (between 11 February 1938 and his death on 6 March 1939).
Born in Toplița to Gheorghe and Domnița Cristea, a peasant family, he studied at the Saxon Evangelical Gymnasium of Bistrița (1879–1883), at the Greek-Catholic Lyceum of Năsăud (1883–1887), at the Orthodox Seminary of Sibiu (1887–1890), after which he became a teacher and principal at the Romanian Orthodox school of Orăștie (1890–1891).
Cristea then studied philosophy and modern philology at the University of Budapest (1891–1895), where he was awarded a doctorate in 1895 – with a dissertation about the life and works of Mihai Eminescu (given in Hungarian).
Returning to Transylvania, he was a secretary (between 1895 and 1902), then a counselor (1902–1909) at the Archbishopric of Sibiu. It was then that he was ordained deacon in 1900 and archdeacon in 1901. Cristea became a monk at the Hodoș Bodrog Monastery, Arad County in 1902, taking the monastic name of Miron. He climbed the monastery hierarchy, becoming an archmonk in 1903 and a protosingel in 1908.
In 1908, following the death of bishop Nicolae Popea, the election of the bishop of Caransebeș led to a dispute between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Imperial authorities, when, twice in a row, the elected bishops were not recognized by emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, at the recommendation of the Hungarian government. Cristea was the third choice, being chosen on 21 November 1910, and obtaining the recognition from the authorities and membership in the House of Magnates; he became an archbishop in 1919.
During World War I, as Romania joined the war on the Allies' side, Cristea signed on 1 September 1916, a public letter to the parishioners printed at Oradea by the Orthodox Bishopric of Transylvania. The letter called to arms all believers against "Romania the new enemy which sinfully covets to ruin the borders, coming to conquer Transylvania". According to some historians, during the Serbian occupation of the Lugoj-Caransebeș Banat in 1918, Bishop Cristea mentioned King Peter I of Serbia in church services instead of King Ferdinand I of Romania.
Towards the end of World War I, on 18 October 1918, the Central National Romanian Central Council was formed, an organization which fought for the union of Transylvania and Romania. On 21 November, Cristea, as archbishop of Caransebeș joined the organization and recognized it as the only ruling body of the Romanian nation in Transylvania. On 1 December, he was (with Vasile Goldiș, Iuliu Hossu, and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod) a member of Austro-Hungarian Romanian delegation that called for the unification of Romania and Transylvania.
On 28 May 1919, the King and government of Romania went to the grave of Michael the Brave in Câmpia Turzii and Bishop Cristea lead the religious service of commemoration and held a nationalist speech in which he drew a parallel between King Ferdinand I and Michael the Brave and recommended the King to not stop at Turda, but continuing all the way to the Tisa River.
Metropolitan-Primate and Patriarch
Because of his collaboration with the German occupation troops, the Metropolitan-Primate Conon Arămescu-Donici was forced to resign on 1 December 1919 and on 31 December 1919, Cristea was chosen by the Great Electoral College as the first Metropolitan-Primate of Greater Romania with 435 votes out of 447. The Romanian Orthodox Church was elevated to a patriarchate in 1925. On 1 November 1925, after a Synod was held, Cristea was named Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
As Metropolitan-Primate and later Patriarch, Cristea continued the tradition of his predecessors to support whatever government was in power. The church acted as an agency of the state, for instance, in 1920, Cristea asked the clergymen to aid the state financially by encouraging the faithful to buy government bonds. Cristea's discourse incorporated nationalist and statist elements, arguing that Orthodox religion was integral to the Romanian soul, and he argued that the church's values include "patriotism" and "obedience to [civil] authorities" alongside "faith and morality".
Cristea introduced reforms such as the Gregorian calendar to the church, including, briefly, the celebration of Pascha (Easter) on the same date as the Roman Catholic Church. This was opposed by various groups of traditionalists and Old Calendarists, especially in Moldavia, where Metropolitan Gurie Grosu of Bessarabia refused to accept the orders given by the Patriarchate.
In 1927, he was chosen by Ionel Brătianu to be one of the three regents of King Michael I of Romania, alongside Prince Nicholas of Romania and Gheorghe Buzdugan.
Cristea's involvement in politics was, however, controversial, being criticised by journalists at Epoca newspaper, who accused him of trying to play the role of Rasputin and being a member of the palace camarilla. This resulted in the issue being confiscated by the police, and Epoca offices being vandalized by hooligans, allegedly incited by the government.
A dispute arose with philosopher Nae Ionescu after Ionescu attacked Cristea for hypocrisy in newspaper articles following a lavish dinner with Cristea during the Nativity Fast at which they were served, amongst other things, turkey. In retaliation, Cristea requested that the iconographer Belizarie paint Ionescu's face on a figure of the devil in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest's Apocalypse-themed mural.
In 1929, because of a serious illness (identified as leucocythemia by his medics), Cristea retired for several months to a country house in Dragoslavele, Muscel County, but despite the bleak predictions about his health state, he was soon able to return to Bucharest.