Abstract
The study presents some documents about the life and activity of Metropolitan Tit Simedrea, the last head of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Bukovina (June 1940 – June 1945), before its occupation by the Red Army, i.e. by the Soviet Union, in the spring of 1944. The Metropolitan was a member of the National Peasant Party and a constant opponent to the Legionary Movement. During the war, risking his own life, he contributed to saving the Jews of Bukovina but the current controversy concerning the former Chief Rabin of Romania, Alexandru Safran, contributed to the Yad Washem declining to declare the Metropolitan „Just among the People”. The author also publishes a memorandum of Metropolitan Tit Simedrea concerning the reformation of the monastic life in the Putna Monastery (1941), which anticipated the present day organization.
Keywords
Bukovina, Holocaust, Marshall Ion Antonescu, Metropolitan Tit Simedrea, Putna Monastery
