We would like to invite all those of you interested in the Romanian and Christian values to visit the Parish Church from Baia Sprie, even in this virtual format.
We bring to your attention the fact that Baia Sprie is the mining town located at the feet of the Gutai Mountain in the historical part of Maramures, an ancient town with tradition among the main communities near the county capital, that is the city of Baia Mare, with good householders, worthy, hard-working people, who at the same time know the Fear of God and remain faithful to their religion. The Romanian urban population, mostly Orthodox, has been living together in peace and harmony for centuries with ethnic groups such as Reformed and Roman Catholic Hungarians, Ukrainians, Hebrews and Roma. Pursuant to the national census from 2011, the Romanian Orthodox population amounted up to almost 6300 souls, who cohabit with Hungarians, Hebrew, Germans, Ukrainians and Roma.
The majority (98.8%) of the Romanian ethnic group are declared Christians, 95.6% of them belonging to the Orthodox religion and pertaining to the Baia Sprie Cathedral Church which was built during the communist regimen between 1977-1978 and consecrated (blessed) in 1987. The Church acted as an independent Parish Church until 2009, under the coordination of the rememberable Administrative diocesan vicar Father Ciprian SUARASEAN, who met his Maker in the fall of 2008.
As of October 1st, 2009, the lower side of Baia Sprie, near the vicinity of the National Road DN 18, near the Sasar river, detached itself from the upper side of the town and became an independent Parish with a number of 2008 Ortodox followers, residents of the neighbourhoods of West Microraion, Chiuzbaii Valley, Miresului Street and Campului Street, Parish where Reverend Adrian Gh. PAUL – parish priest and Reverend Marius CATANA – curate service. Starting then, the Parish Church from the lower side of Baia Sprie undertook some construction works to extend the wooden Church, to enclose the land assigned to the Parish and to the Parish Church with fence that matches the beauty of the Maramures specific style, to build a beautiful summer Shrine in the Church yard, to errect a parish steeple, which also includes a Parish Library and a priest’s office; and after that, a wooden parish stand was built in 2010-2011 to match the Maramures specific style, who serves both as space to sell books, icons and other church items, and a space for candle offering.
The actual extension of the Parish Church began in 2011, with the changing of the entire shingly wooden roof specfic to Maramures and with errecting a new 39-meter tall Church Tower, thus changing entirely the look of the Baia Sprie wooden Church, giving it a new aspect and height, and turning it into a true gateway into the princely Maramures, opened at the feet of the Gutai Mountain and ready to enchant everyone and to ascend all human feelings to the divine heights of the sky. The Church’s interior was not neglected, as it was adorned with Byzantine and Orthodox icons painted on wood, a new gas heating system was installed, and the inner walls of the Church were coated with carved wooden panellings, and the Holy Altar was embellished with Church items and icons specific to East Christian Tradition.
At the present time (beginning of 2014) there are works being carried out inside the Church, the interior improvement requiring perhaps the most important and significant works – namely, painting on the interior walls, which is specific to Maramures wooden churches.
Under the coordination of the two ministers, the church’s activities consist in an abundance of religious and administrative activities such as the daily morning service (the High Mass from 7,30 A.M.) and the night service (the Vespers and the Akathist from 5.00 P.M.), and the coordination of the construction, expansion and exterior and interior design of the Church site. At the present time, we can state that we’ve succeeded in developing a Parish Church Compound made of wood and stone, according to this area’s specific tradition, that by using the Maramures and princely architecture. It truly is a very attractive sacred space, which became a symbol of the Baia Sprie mining town, a genuine Maramures architectural masterpiece. We want to emphasize that all actions and works carried out until now are the result of the contributions made by the Christians of Baia Sprie, donors and benefactors who provide us regularly with construction materials and financial support. On these lines, we ought to bring our high appreciation and grateful thanks to everybody for their love towards the Church of God and the Sacred Sanctuary of their town community, and, at the same time, ask the almighty Lord, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to show His gratification to their efforts and to multiply hundredfold their sacrifice, toil and gifts to our Parish Church.
Therefore, we invite all those of you who appreciate beauty, sacred tradition and Romanian spirituality, and all those of you who cherish and keep the authentic Romanian and Maramures values, to envision via the inductive waves a piece of this sacred building in Baia Sprie; at the same time, we ask you to feast your eyes, purge your senses and acknowledge and preach to everyone about the authentic values which have kept the durability, purity and beauty of our nation throughout the millennia, promoting the religion, language, tradition and culture throughout the world as pure and unaltered. True, this material describes only a small part of all the things we would like to accomplish in the nearby future at our Parish Church Compound, nevertheless, we express our desire to present more details about what is being beautifully and nobly built to symbolize in time this blessed space and place in Baia Sprie, embellished and adorned with everlasting and unfading Romanian and Maramures genuine values! For that matter, we will upload the newest representative images on site on a regular basis, via the available Transilvania platform „Localitati online” (Online localities).
Perhaps with the financial and spiritual support of those who wish to adhere to our Church and to become one of the donors or benefactors of this sacred spectacular project, we will manage to finish in just a short while the entire Church Compound, according to the canonical rules and regulations of the Orthodox Church, so as to make them available to those interested in visiting and praying to the Lord in our Church.
All that is left for us to do is to invoke the Grace of the Holy Spirit, the love of our Heavenly Father and the blessing of the Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, to rain down on our Romanian nation and bring us peace, serenity, joy and the blessing of Heaven above, and let us pray to the Patron Saints of our Church, Emperor Constantine and his mother, Empress Helen, equals to the Apostles, to intercede on behalf of all of us before the heavenly throne of the Most Holy Trinity in order to attain our eternal salvation.
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in the Holy Spirit,
and from us warm hugs, blessings and best wishes!
Parish Priest dr. Adrian Gh. PAUL (pr.adrianpaul@gmail.com)
Curate drd. Marius CATANA (catanamarius68@yahoo.com)
The Orthodox Parish of „the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen” from Baia Sprie
Baia Sprie, Maramures
No.2 Campului Street
ROMANIA