The Archangel’s Priests Investigating the Relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Iron Guard in Interwar Romania (1930–1941)

The book explores the institutional and intellectual relationship between the Romanian Orthodox Church, represented by its clergymen and theologians, and the Iron Guard in Romania (1930–1941). More precisely, I will analyze and contextualize how the Orthodox Church shaped and influenced the ideology of the Iron Guard by emphasizing the interchange of ideological and theological motifs between Romanian fascists and Orthodox clergymen. Considered by most historians as a “mystical” fascist movement, the Iron Guard remained throughout the interwar period a peculiar mix between fascism and Orthodoxy interpreted by the traditionalist intellectual circles as a form of national revolution.Furthermore, the present undertaking aims to see how the Orthodox clergy and the Romanian fascists met on theological grounds and how theological exchanges was possible between different layers of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Iron Guard.