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Romania - Church flags

On this page:

Transylvanian Reformed (Calvinist) Church
Reformed (Calvinist) Church by The King's Pass
Hungarian Evangelic-Lutheran Church in Transylvania
Saxonian Evangelic-Lutheran Church in Transylvania
Transylvanian Unitarian Church
Romanian Orthodox Church

Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate

Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic

Romanian Orthodox Church

by Dan Anton Dima, 15 May 2005

The Romanian Orthodox flag, as seen hanging on a pole in front of a church in downtown Bucharest. It looks to be exactly the same size as Romania's, but I am not sure about the proper shade of blue. For the main element I used the image at the Romanian Church in Australia site (the only one that had it): http://www.crez.org/history.asp. The symbolism can be considered as quite generic. In any case, the motto at the bottom is from John 21,17: "Feed My sheep", more close to "Guard My sheep" in our language.
Dan Anton Dima, 15 May 2005

Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate

image by Ivan Sarajcic, 21 July 2006

based on http://www.patriarhia.ro/simboluri.php

At http://www.patriarhia.ro/eng/symbols.php can be seen the flag and the arms of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate. The flag is white, with a coat of arms in full-color. This looks like the arms shown as the Patriarchate's, except they seem to be colored differently. The large graphic of the arms show a blue shield on which two golden griffins support a smaller red shield. On the red shield is an elaborate cross in gold. The griffins stand upon some sort of device- several branching lines, perhaps some kind of vegetation(?). On the blue shield, above the red one is a white bird (perhaps a dove) with its wings extended. Supporting the blue shield are two angels, in gold and white. Above the shield is a patriarch's mitre, behind the shield are two staves crossed- one topped by a cross and the other with two intertwined serpents. Suspended from the shield is a gold tassel. The angels stand upon a red scroll with gold lettering which passes below the tassel. Where the reverse of the scroll is visible it is white.

The arms on the flag are very similar but the large shield is red, the small shield is too small to determine, and one angel is in red and white and the other blue and white, with the scroll being in blue, gold, and red, and the tassel in red.
Ned Smith, 20 July 2006

image located by Ned Smith

Ivan's image differs from this photo of the flag - the flag the main shield is red, not blue. I can't be sure of the color of the smaller shield, but enlarging the flag graphic hints it might be blue (which would make sense). The angel on the hoist flag has gold wings, not white, and a red stole, not gold; the angel on the fly side has gold wings, not white, and a blue stole, not gold; the scroll below the angels is blue in the fold on the hoist end, gold in the center fold, and red in the fold on the fly end. The tassel suspended from the bottom of the shield is red.
Ned Smith, 21 July 2006

Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic

The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek Catholic, is a very small church with a very long name. It is one of the smallest of the Greek Catholic churches, and its history has been characterized by conflicts with the Latin Rite churches both in Romania and abroad. I have been hampered in trying to obtain information regarding its vex traditions and usage because its web sites are all in Romanian. However, when I turned to the Eparchy of Oradea (a city in western Romania) I found an extensive photo gallery with several photos of what appear to be church banners in procession. I do not know whether these banners can fairly be called flags in the commonly accepted sense, although they obviously have great religious significance for the Church and its adherents.

Ron Lahav, 10 December 2008

Some useful information can be found on Wikipedia article about gonfalones and about the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic.

The first photo was taken on January 6, 2008, during a ceremony of sanctifying the Criş river in western Romania (flowing trough Oradea). This ritual is always performed on the day of the Epiphany, which in Orthodox tradition is celebrated on January 6. Usually, after the sanctification, the priest throws a cross into the cold water and men dive in and swim, trying to recover it. Whoever gets it is said to be lucky all the year and receives a prize. The second photo was taken on April 4, 2008 in the Greek Catholic church in Vălanii de Beiuş, in western Romania. The priests are holding a service.

The gonfalon (in Romanian: prapor (sg.), prapori (pl.)) is very common in Greek-Catholic and Orthodox churches (not only in Romania). It usually consists of a coloured gonfalon (sometimes decorated with golden thread) with three endings and a religious icon in the middle. The icons on the gonfalones are those of Jesus Christ, of Virgin Mary with the Child or of the Patron of that church. The gonfalone is considered a "portable icon", beared as a victory sign (of Jesus Christ over the devil I presume). Its meaning is just like that of the national flags and coat of arms: Unity and Victory. It is used in religious ceremonies such as dedication of a church and Easter service. When not beared in ceremonies, the gonfalones are kept near the side walls of the church' nave.

The gonfalon shares some features with the normal flags: the cloth, the rod, the symbol. The early military flags of Moldavia were derived from these gonfalones. On the other hand, the gonfalones are hard to be considered as regular flags (such as a war/state/national flag of a country/army/ city etc.), each having a precise meaning, but rather as a religious object, the same way as the chalice, the cross, the icons etc. What I mean is that the color of the cloth or the icons depicted does not confer the gonfalone a particular meaning among the others.
Alex Danes, 12 December 2008

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