The Activism of the Middle Clergy in Support of the National Desideratum: Romanian Archpriests at the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia

The Activism of the Middle Clergy in Support of the National Desideratum: Romanian Archpriests at the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia – Especially within the framework of collapsing multi-national empires, the end of the Great War brought about certain ethnically-charged processes meant to engender solidarity, which were completed through a translation of power centers and the emergence of new states, or the refashioning of extant ones. The present research examines the mobilization of national groups towards the end of 1918, through an analysis of a social-professional group that was deeply involved in the processes of national identification: the middle clergy. In order to narrow down this broad object of analysis, our research prioritizes the examination of the Romanian archpriests, who interceded between communities (parishes), ecclesiastical institutions, and the local and central state administration.