Anul 1918 în „însemnările unui pribeag în ţara lui” – vicarul Iacob Popa

Over time, the Great Union of 1918 has stirred the interest of numerous specialists. Approached from diverse perspectives, the topic is always of actuality, being completed with new sources. In the comprehensive process of exhaustive reconstruction of the event, which marked the constitution of the Greater Romania, the memoirs and journals of the participants constitute an important historiographic source. Starting from this premise, this paper undertakes to emphasize on the way the 1918 Union was perceived, on the background of a very high horizon of expectations, by the vicar forane of Făgăraş, Iacob Popa (1872-1937). His records are all the more interesting as – due to his favourable attitude towards the Romanian army, considered treason by the Hungarian authorities – the Greek Catholic clergy were forced to seek refuge in Romania, on October 6, 1916. Aware that he was part of a major historical translation, he filled in accurately new information in his journal, on a daily basis. Throughout his journey on the Romanian and the Russian territory (in May 1917, he went to Russia, as part of the commission for recruiting Transylvanian volunteers), Iacob Popa always paid attention to the events occurring on fronts and especially to the situation in Transylvania. Present in Iaşi during the Great Union on December 1, 1918, he marked the episode in his accounts. Though subjective given the personal experience of the author, the journal of the Greek Catholic vicar opens a new window through which we may look at the past from a unique perspective, meant to complete the fresco of the great event in the history of the Romanian nation.