Whenever a journal is launched, it is customary to set out a programme, a rationale, and a justification for its aims and objectives. The very name of the journal, Martyria: A Journal of Orthodox Culture and Spirituality, clearly expresses its purpose.
The term ‘martyria’ (Greek: μαρτυρία, ας, ἡ) in the New Testament is used to mean confession, testimony, declaration, attestation of the truth, synonymous with the Latin ‘testimonium’, – the martyr being one who bore witness to Christ the Lord and attested to the truth of His teaching through his blood and his life. In the early centuries of Christianity, the Greek word μαρτυρία was also borrowed into Latin (the plural of the noun being martyrium) and, through it, denoted, on the one hand, the place where the holy relics of the martyrs were kept, and, on the other, the church built over a martyr’s tomb, in honour of a martyr.
In patristic theology, martyrdom represents the most concrete way of living one’s life in Christ. The journal Martyria seeks to emphasise this fact, namely that bearing witness to the true faith in our own day is a form of martyrdom. Indeed, the display of courage in bearing witness to the faith in a society that seeks to distance itself ever further from God is, whatever one may say, a form of martyrdom. The Church’s work in the world, as a continuation of the work of Christ the Saviour, reveals God’s truth to the world: ‘For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’ (John 18:37). The life of the Church is intertwined with mission, as a commandment of Christ the Lord given not only to the Holy Apostles but to all believers: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28:19). In the same vein, Saint Paul the Apostle testifies: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:16).
Faith and its profession are essential conditions for attaining salvation: ‘Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved’ (Mark 16:16). The Church’s missionary work is not only a testimony to the Church’s dynamism, but also a testimony to personal spiritual life, an indication of the piety and zeal of each individual believer.
The Archdiocese of Râmnic’s journal of theology and spirituality aims to bear witness, in today’s secularised society, that the act of culture must be an act of professing the true faith, for, without confessing Christ as the one and only Truth, culture is incomplete; indeed, culture cannot be cultivated whilst remaining distant from the Church of Christ, since apart from Christ one is empty.
The relationship between culture and faith is an increasingly pressing missionary issue to which the Church cannot remain passive, but must engage in the most serious manner. Culture must contribute to strengthening man’s bond with God, both as the source of knowledge and as its object: ‘And this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’ (John 17:3). European culture is, at its roots, in harmony with the spirit of Christianity. If it strays from this, it strays from its very essence and from that which constitutes it: the knowledge of the Truth.
Until 2016, the magazine of the Archdiocese of Râmnic was published under the name Renașterea (The Renaissance), but this name was abandoned, partly because from 1939 until its abolition by the communist regime in 1948, this magazine had operated under the auspices of the Metropolis of Oltenia (it was only published by the Diocese of Râmnic after the Revolution), and, on the other hand, because it was often confused with the magazine Renașterea, founded by Bishop Nicolae Ivan of Cluj in 1919.
From this year onwards, it was decided that the Archdiocese of Râmnic would publish two diocesan magazines: Praxis. Newsletter of the Archdiocese of Râmnic, in which the main pastoral, missionary and cultural activities of the diocese are published, and Martyria. A journal of Orthodox theology and spirituality, the Archdiocese’s academic journal, in which studies on theology and culture are published. These studies aim to preserve and promote the unaltered Orthodox faith and authentic Romanian traditions, as well as to strengthen the national consciousness and unity of the Romanian people.
We bless with fatherly love the staff and all the contributors to our diocesan journal, praying to God that the seed sown through the journal Martyria* may bear fruit in the souls of its readers.