Maglavit is a commune in

Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)-Jiu River, Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to ''Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, ...

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. It is composed of two villages, Hunia and Maglavit.

History

Research carried out on the banks of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

in which Maglavit is situated on, prove that the area has been inhabited since at least 1500 B.C. It has been mentioned in documents of the 14th century, bu the name of Toporna. In mid-1935, local

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...

shepherd

Petrache Lupu Petrache Lupu (born 12 October 1907, Maglavit, Dolj, Romania - died December 14, 1994, Maglavit, Dolj, Romania) was a shepherd from Maglavit commune, who claimed to have had divine visions. In 1935 a mass phenomenon began, with Maglavit becoming ...

claimed to have seen and spoken with God. Over the following three years, some two million pilgrims came to Maglavit, 10 million lei in donations were raised and King

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930, until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. As the eldest son of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I, ...

ordered the construction of a church on the site of the reported miracle. However, interest in the story had withered by autumn 1938, the church remained largely unbuilt and the funds were embezzled. The episode was exploited by the far-right:

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

supporter

Nichifor Crainic Nichifor Crainic (; pseudonym of Ion Dobre ; 22 December 1889, Bulbucata, Giurgiu County – 20 August 1972, Mogoșoaia) was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist activities. Crainic was ...

eulogized Lupu, while his '' Sfarmă-Piatră'' was still mentioning him in April 1941. Meanwhile, in 1935,

sympathizer N. Crevedia claimed Lupu had cured him of uncontrollable blinking. Radu Ioanid, "Characteristics of Rumanian Fascism", in Matthew Feldman, ''Fascism'', p. 131. Taylor & Francis, 2004,

Gallery

File:Danube marsh, Maglavit 01.JPG, Marsh on the Danube File:Maglavit, Petrache Lupu's site.JPG, Site of Lupu's reported miracle

References

Communes in Dolj County Localities in Oltenia Important Bird Areas of Romania {{Dolj-geo-stub

History

Gallery

See also

References