Our National Consciousness Is Strongly Connected with Rome
Romania and Italy are linked by 145 years of diplomatic relations, but the special bilateral relation is based on historical, cultural and linguistic links which have played an important role in affirming the Romanian nation in a universal context such as the one offered by Rome, the world’s centre of reference for many centuries. The classic symbol par excellence of this special and, I would say, natural link, is Trajan’s Column, which represents the “birth certificate of the Romanian people”. Over time, the links have also been emphasized throughout the formation and assertion of the modern Romanian state; allow me to mention, for example, the epistolary exchanges between Benito Cavour and Vasile Alecsandri or the presence of soldiers from Galați in Garibaldi’s army. The main representatives of the Transylvanian School have studied in Rome, a city which saw the birth of the enthusiasm and the national consciousness that led, on December 1st 1918, to Romania’s Union with Transylvania, through the expression of the free and conscious will of the Romanians from Transylvania and Banat. In Rome, the Greek-Catholic Bishop Inochentie Micu Klein wrote his memoirs, a true handbook for patriotism which I recommend as an antidote to the ostentatious patriotism that sometimes occupies the public sphere. Going through the memoirs of Bishop Inochentie produces a vibration in the soul which counters the alienation engendered by consumerism, indifference and sterile discussions. Turning back to the basic idea, I would like to emphasize that the formation of our national consciousness is strongly connected with Rome. More
