Romanian royalty, diplomats, priests and fans of the late Queen Marie of Romania celebrated the 150th anniversary of her birth in ceremonies held around the world.
Princess Margareta, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, is the great-granddaughter of the British-born queen who has become a symbol in post-communist Romania. She presided over the ceremony with Prince Consort, Prince Radu at the Pelisor Castle where Marie’s heart was finally laid to rest in 2015, interred in the Golden Room where “it beat for the last time.”
It was a long journey before it found its final resting place, having criss-crossed the beleaguered nation for 77 years which after her death, plunged into World War II, followed by more than four decades of communism before in 1989 embarking unsteadily on the road to democracy and a free market.
Born in Kent, England on Oct. 29, 1875, Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Emperor Alexander II of Russia. She married Ferdinand of the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who later became Fedinand I of Romania and moved to Romania when she was just 17.
Marie died in 1938 in Sinaia aged 62, one year before World War II broke out, though she entered the nation’s heart by her unwavering commitment and negotiating skills after the Great War at the Paris Peace Conference which secured a young Romania the return of the province of Transylvania, effectively making Romania a modern nation state as well as doubling its territory.
The late queen is something of a symbol of grace and devotion in Romania, appreciated for her love for her adopted country, her dedication in recapturing lost territory after World War I, and hands-on medical care to wounded soldiers during the war. Photos of her show her unique style and striking looks from early youth to old age.
Dozens were present for the royal ceremony including British Ambassador to Romania, Giles Portman and Romania’s Ambassador to the Holy See, George Bologan who received (see video below).
“On the 150th anniversary of Queen Marie’s birth, I had the honor of receiving the Order of the “Crown of Romania” in the rank of Knight from the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, HM Margareta. It is a distinction that carries with it an entire history of dignity, devotion and service to the common good. The ceremony took place at Peles Castle in the presence of personalities from religious, academic, cultural, political and civil society environments. I appreciated the presence of my good friend, the Apostolic Nuncio, H.E. Giampiero Gloder,” write Ambassador Bologan on LinkedIn.
There were events to mark her 150th anniversary at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and Romania’s Embassy in Paris.
In Bucharest, she was celebrated fittingly at the Atheneum concert hall built in 1875 at a gala event called ‘From the Heart for the Future’ a fundraising event organized by the Regina Maria Social Innovation Foundation.
Here is Queen Marie’s biography and will as provided by the Regina Maria – Queen Marie of Romania Facebook page.
29 October 1875, Eastwell Park, Ashford, Kent, England. Marie Alexandra Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and , is born.
December 29, 1892. She marries Ferdinand I, the Crown Prince of Romania.
On October 11, 1914, she became Queen of Romania, a country to whose destiny she would be strongly linked, dedicating the rest of her life to her.
July 18, 1938, Sinaia. She leaves this world, asking that his heart be deposited in the Orthodox chapel of Stella Maris, on the shores of the Black Sea, in Balchik, to watch over and protect Romania, according to an old medieval custom.
“To my country and to my people,
When you read these letters, My People, I will have crossed the threshold of eternal Silence, which remains a great mystery for us. And yet, out of the great love that I bore you, I would like my voice to reach you once again, even beyond the silence of the grave.
I had barely turned 17 when I came to you; I was young and ignorant, but very proud of my native country, and I embraced a new nationality, I strove to become a good Romanian. At first it was not easy. I was a foreigner, in a foreign country, alone among foreigners. But too few are those who recall themselves to reflect on how difficult is the path that a foreign Princess must travel in order to become one with the new country to which she has been called. I have become yours through joy and sorrow. Looking back, it’s hard to say which was greater: joy or pain? – I think the joy was greater, but the pain was longer.
No one is judged justly while he lives: only after death is he remembered or forgotten. Perhaps you will remember me because I loved you with all the strength of my heart and my love was strong, full of momentum: later it became patient, very patient.
It has been given to me to live with you, my people, times of hardship and times of great fulfillment. For a time I was given to be your guide, to be your inspiration, to be the one who kept the flame alive, the one who became the center of stubbornness in the darkest days.
I can tell you this today because I am no longer alive. In those days you gave me a name that was dear to me; You have called me “The Mother of All” and I would like to remain in your memory those who could always be found in moments of pain or danger. There came a time later when you denied me, but that is the fate of mothers, I received it, and I loved you further, although I could not help you as much as in the days when you believed in me. But this is forgotten.
I have been in your midst so long that it seems to me scarcely possible that I must leave you; However, every man reaches the end of his journey.
I have reached the end of my road. But before I am silent for eternity, I want to raise my hands for the last time for a blessing.
I bless you, beloved Romania, the land of my joys and sorrows, beautiful country, which you have lived in my heart and whose paths I have known all. A beautiful country that I have seen whole, whose fate I have been allowed to see fulfilled. Be eternally abundant, be great and honorable, stand forever towering among nations, be honored, loved, and skilled.
I have faith that I understood you: I did not judge, I loved…
I never liked shapes and formulas, I sometimes didn’t really pay attention to the words I spoke. I loved the truth and dreamed of living in the sunlight, but everyone lives as they can, not as they would like. But when you remember me, my people, think of me as one who loved life and beauty, who was too honest to be considerate, too merciful to be victorious, too loving to judge.
I have no wealth to leave you, what you have so generously given me I have spent among you: I have embellished those places where I have been given to live. If all the beautiful things remind you of me, then I will be fully rewarded by the love I have given you, because beauty has been a creed for me.
I have reawakened to a new life the little abandoned castle of Bran, but Tenha-Juva (Balchik) was the place that was made, there I was given to make the dream come true, and because this meant more to me than I could ever interpret, I asked my son King Carol II that my heart be brought and placed at Stella Maris, the church that I built on the seashore.
With my body I will rest at Curtea de Arges next to my beloved husband King Ferdinand, but I want my heart to be placed under the slabs of the church I built. In the course of a long life, so many have come to my heart that even dead, I wish I could come to it again along the lily path that was my pride and joy. I want to rest there in the midst of the beauties I have made, in the midst of the flowers I have planted. And since that’s where my heart is, I don’t want it to be a place of mourning, but of peace and charm as it was when I was alive. I entrust my children to the hearts of my people, being mortal they may err, but their hearts warm as mine was: beloved and be useful to one another, for so it must be.
And now I bid you farewell forever: from now on I will not be able to send you any sign: but above all, remember me, my people, that I have loved you and that I bless you with my last breath.
Not knowing the time that is assigned to me on earth, I decide by this will my last wills. I bless the country, my children and grandchildren. I ask my children to never forget that trust in God is a guide in happiness and comfort in suffering. I ask them to be united, to support the country and to support each other. I also ask them to submit without discord to my last wishes.
My Motherly love for them is the same, and if I have the part available only in favor of one of them, it is only because he is more deprived of the necessities of life. (…)
I would have liked to be able to leave more to my beloved country as a sign of the unceasing love that I have borne for her and that I leave an inexhaustible source to my heirs.
My fervent desire would have been to build a small church on the former front in Onesti and to set up a dormitory with my name for the students of the University of Iasi, as a memory of the difficult days spent there during the great war for the unification of the nation.
I feel a deep sadness that my modest fortune, due to the generosity of my beloved husband King Ferdinand, and still reduced by the difficulties of recent times, does not allow me to do the good I would like.
I forgive those who made me suffer. I ask those whom I would have involuntarily wronged to forgive me because I did not want to harm anyone. (…)
This will was written, dated and signed by my hand at Tenka – Juvah, Balchik, today, Thursday, June 29, 1933.
MARIA, QUEEN OF ROMANIA”
