Corneliu Zelea Cordreanu: Revolutionary Or Saint?

[MichaelWitcoff]

To be fair, the guy Codreanu killed was so evil and corrupt that Codreanu shot him in the middle of a crowded courtroom and was unanimously let off the hook by the jury. I think there’s an argument to be made that it was self-defense on a bigger level even if Codreanu wasn’t “defending his life” in that one particular moment.

 

[Mountaineer]

Are we allowed to prevent evil with physical force or not? What is the stance of the Church Fathers on this?

 

[Aboulia]

Codreanu suffers from the same delusion as most Americans: the threat of an external enemy. For the Americans it is Communism, for Codreanu it is the Jew. These are at best straw men and at worst idols, the obsession has taken the place of God in the hearts of men, this is idolatry. Codreanu did lasting damage to Romanian Orthodoxy, his vision is simply a sort of Christian Orthodox version of Zionism.... oh the irony.

He is no saint, he has no marks of sainthood.

Greetings from Romania.
Christ is Born!
No, what I am getting at is the obsession with external enemies. It is the corral mentality: put a border round your community and have an enemy outside your border that is unclean or evil or a threat. I just don't think it is Christian, it certainly isn't Orthodox. God rules in the midst of His enemies. All we are asked to work on is our repentance and our humility wherever we find ourselves and whoever our neighbour is.
You have a lot still to learn about Orthodoxy, and you probably won't like it.

You're correct that the view that you think Codreanu had isn't Orthodox. The problem is, that it wasn't his view. Here's his views

Now, for the first time in our history, Romanians face a people which attack us not with the sword but with the weapons that are specific to the Judaic race, with which they strike and paralyze first the moral instinct of peoples, then systematically spread all sorts of moral sickness, thus to destroy any possibilities of reacting. That is why our people feel disarmed and defeated. As a consequence of seeing this state of affairs, the cornerstone on which the Legion stands is man, not the political program; man's reform, not that of the political programs. "The Legion of Michael the Archangel" will be, in other words, more a scbool and an army than a political party.
........

This hero, the product of legionary education, will also know how to elaborate programs; will also know how to solve the Jewish problem; will also know how to organize the state well; will also know how to convince the other Romanians; and if not, he will know bow to win, for that is why he is a hero. This hero, this legionary of bravery, labor and justice, with the powers God implanted in his soul, will lead our Fatherland on the road of its glory.

A new political party, be it even a Cuzist one, at best can give us a new government and a new administration; a legionary school however, can give this country a great type of Romanian. It can produce something great we never had before, which could break in two our whole history, to lay foundations for the beginning of a different Romanian history to which this people is entitled. For our people by virtue of its millenary suffering and sufferance, by virtue of its purity and gallantry of soul, has been perhaps the only people in the world which, in all its history, never committed the sin of invading and subjugating other nations.

We shall create an atmosphere, a moral medium in which the heroic man can be born and can grow. This medium must be isolated from the rest of the world by the highest possible spiritual fortifications. it must be defended from all the dangerous winds of cowardice, corruption, licentiousness, and of all the passions which entomb nations and murder individuals. Once the legionary will have developed in such a milieu, i.e. in the nest*, work camp, in the legionary organization and family, he shall be sent into the world: to live, in order to learn how to be correct; to fight, in order to learn to be brave and strong; to work, in order to be ddigent and love all those who work; to suffer, in order to steel himself, to sacrifice, in order to get accustomed to overcoming his selfish interests, serving his Fatherland.
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A country has the Jews it deserves. Just as mosquitoes can thrive and settle only in swamps, likewise the former can only thrive in the swamps of our sins." - Codreanu

Does this sound like a man who blames everything on external factors? He wasn't aimed at a political solution, but a spiritual one. Many of his views were entirely Orthodox. He taught others to forgive personal offences, He was right to be angry with foreigners ruling over his people (which the Old Testament strictly forbids). He denounced corruption and sought out a more just system than what was currently in place. which of this is anti-Orthodox?

What the Iron Guard degenerated into after his murder by his political/ethnic opponents is not his fault. That sin lies with those who orchestrated his murder. You may say that he elevated his ethnic group higher than it should have been, but he also lived in an age where racial theories and darwinism was quite popular, Remember that the prosperity Germany achieved under Hitler was very attractive at this time. Codreanu was definitely an admirable man, even if he isn't a candidate for sainthood.

 

[Liviu]

Saint Paisios the Athonite said that modern time, besides the spreading of sin, allows the Christians to be together. I heard that now, many Christian-orthodox books can be found in United States. Is a big suprise that a book about Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was translated in English and maybe even printed there.
As a Romanian, I read about him. All I know is `The Legion of the Archangel Michael` was a prominent Romanian youth organization who activated in the time between the two world wars and during the WW2 formed from Christian-orthodox young men and which was a natural reaction at the jewish enourmous (dominant) presence in the academic life and of economical life of the Romania of that day. After the execution of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu from the order of the corrupt authoritarian king Carol the IInd, the movement was taken over by Horia Sima, was called `The Iron Guard` , entered in the government in crisis time and deviated (acccording to Romanian historian Neagu Djuvaru who was initially sympathiser of the movement or even member). The deviation was mainly manifested by the Pogrom of Iași (killing of many jews) and by the killing of known historian and great Romanian professor Nicolae Iorga.
Is known that probably the greatest saint of communist prisons is Valeriu Gafencu, bright student who had been previously only in the `Cross brotherhoods`, the entry level of the Legion.This was a sufficient reason for the delaying of his sanctification because the jews have an important word to say in our country (like mostly everywhere) and the Church is reluctant to say some things openly because has the interest to receive help from the state in some directions, Romania being a majoritary Christian-orthodox country.
So, Valeriu Gafencu is undeniably saint but hasn`t been sanctified yet. About Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, I know that Romanian spiritual father Justin Pârvu (1919 - 2013), a saint himself, had an icon with him, being himself a patriot and knowing well the reality of Romania of that time . But is hard to say. By the way, father Justin Pârvu said (and look at his death year) to not receive the vaccine which will come!
I would say that Corneliu Zelea-Codreanu is a national Romanian hero but will come the time when all things will be uncovered.