Cremation in Interwar Romania: The Case of the Potter's Field

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the activities of Potter's Field practice in Romania as part of the Patriarch Miron Orthodox Association. From its very beginning it was orientated against the apparition of cremation in Romania, realized in the first cremation at the Cenușa Crematorium in Bucharest (1928). The target was to 'save' poor people from cremation, considering that the cremation aimed to remove from the local authorities the pressure of supporting the costs of burials for unidentified bodies and bodies that were unclaimed by families ('the social cremations'). Therefore, the Potter's Field practice developed in Romania in an original way in comparison to other countries. This situation indicated a way of translating cremation into reality in Romania and expressed some of its particularities in this country (the implication of the authorities, cremation as a personal choice or the forms of criticism by the religious environments).

Keywords: Romanian orthodox church; attitudes towards cremation; bible; interwar Romania; polemics.