A Lesser-Known Source on the Great War. Transylvania's Romanian Parish Chronicles and Their Historical-Cultural Value.

Ana Victoria Sima, Babes-Bolyai University, Romanian Academy

This study analyses parish chronicles as a source of knowledge about the home front of the Transylvanian Romanians during World War One. Based on the most recent research in European historiography on the importance of these sources, the study aims to achieve the following objectives: First, it wishes to identify and analyse the motivations behind writing these chronicles, the time/ period they were written, and how their content reflects it. This study also attempts to answer research questions like the following: How credible are these chronicles? What do they offer compared to other types of sources in connection with the Great War? To what extent can their authors, the priests, claim to be objective, and can their testimonies be trusted? What social categories are involved in the war, for which these sources reveal their wartime behaviour and attitudes? Last but not least, this study attempts to analyse the recurrent topics of these chronicles and their pre-dominantly commemorative value. Most of these chronicles were intended as documents for posterity, through which the names and deeds of the community members leave anonymity to remain recorded in the memory of the place.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 186. State-Capacity and Societal Cohesion between Church and State in Europe