The Macedonians from Romania

Macedonians

The Macedonians from Romania are a Slavic, Orthodox population that came from Macedonia`s territory in several migration waves starting with the eleventh century. The Macedonians are a recognized national minority in Romania since 2000. The Macedonia village (Timis county) is one of the first Macedonian settlements in Romania, documented by Catholic Church records in 1332-1337 under the name of Machadonia. Nicodim from Tismana (1340-1406), born in Prilep, Macedonia, came from the Athos mountain with a group of Macedonian, Greek, and Armani/Vlach monks and together built several monasteries: Tismana, Vodita, Prislop,Visina, etc. Sanctified in 1767, he is commemorated on December 26th.

For Macedonians, whose country was a Ottoman province, Walachia represented an ideal of social and religious freedom. Therefore, many waves of migration have come to Romania, even during the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. For Macedonians, the fight of the Romanian people against foreign occupations became their own fight, taking part in Mihai Viteazu`s fight against the Turks, in Tudor Vladimirescu`s revolt, as well as other wars for freedom and keeping the Orthodox religion.

The Association of the Macedonians from Romania was founded in 2000, and since 2001 is a member of the National Minority Board. The goal of the association is to represent, promote, and protect the interests of the Macedonian ethnic community from Romania, to make their culture, language, and history known, to protect and widen the individual and collective rights of the members of the Macedonians minority in Romania, and to strengthen the Romanian-Macedonian collaboration. AMR`s women organization is involved in the public life of the organization and has provided a large part of the organization`s leadership. The youth organization is the main provider of volunteers for AMR activities.

In the four years of its existence, AMR has raised awareness about the Macedonians` contribution to the Romanian public life, through cultural institutions that promote Macedonian culture and artists, supporting children in assuming their ethnic identity, through contests, camps, festivals, trips, prizes, the publication of artistic works, organizing seminars and round-table discussions.