O rânduială liturgicã rară: slujba încoronării
Abstract
XXIst century was named for good reasons “the century of speed”, “World Wars Era”, “Post-Christian Era”, “the time of the death of God”. XXIst century inherits these spiritual, social and economic vices. Unfortunately, the anti-work of destruction of man goes on, in an almost diabolical way. All the world Religions, mainly the Christian denominations, fight for man’s re-humanization, make substantial efforts to overcome the materialistic deadlock of human life in view to its verticalization and spiritualization. The decadence is generated by the lack of landmarks – the true crisis that today’s man is struggling with, as we read in the Great Canon of St. Andrew from Crete: «The law has no power over you, O, my soul! You have made the Gospel fruitless and scorned the Scriptures!”. Man does not look up to God anymore and no longer obeys His commandment of love, although He looks with mercy on us, watches over this world and calls it to perfection. Man has lost the authority of the civil law, which he does not obey anymore. Especially today, there are no more charismatic leaders with morality and a symbol of divine authority which is expressed through its chosen ones. In the past, this was the emperor or the king: “Lord’s Anointed”. The present study wants to rediscover the liturgical ritual which is forgotten today: the coronation service of the king or emperor. Except for some byzantine sources, among which we mention “The treaty of St. Simeon of Thessalonica”, the late references of Dimitrie Cantemir from his “Descriptio Moldaviae” or the contributions of some more recent authors (Umberto Ecco, Jean Claude Schmitt, March Bloch, Richard Jakcson, Robert Hertz, Jean Maisonneuve), the subject is still not fully discussed. The pages that follow are a synthesis of those sources, try a semiotic theological-liturgical analysis of the rituals and point out two of the most illuminating moments from the History of the modern Romania: the coronation of King Carol I and King Ferdinand I.
