reorganise theological education; to reunite the Church by returning the Greek-Catholics to Orthodoxy (their ancestors having left it in the Union of 1700); to strengthen brotherly relations with all Orthodox churches; to promote ecumenical relations with other Christian churches, etc. In response to Patriarch Justinian's call to Greek-Catholic believers, on October 1, 1948, 37 Greek-Catholic priests and archpriests assembled in a gymnasium in Cluj to sign a declaration that they would convert to the Romanian Orthodox Church, as they no longer wished to receive orders from "Imperialist Rome". Two days later, their emissaries presented themselves at Bucharest under police escort before the Holy Synod, asking to be received into Orthodoxy. Prior to that, they had been laicized by their superior, Bishop Iuliu Hossu. As evident from this reference to Imperialism, this was a political move as well as a religious one, fitting in with the Cold War and denying the West a possible leverage in Romania. On October 21, 1948, a large popular assembly took place at Alba Iulia, organised by the Interior Ministry. 20,000 Greek-Catholic clergy (including those who had signed the declaration at Cluj) and laity from across Transylvania participated; they were solemnly received into the Romanian Orthodox Church. Achievements as Patriarch Despite many difficulties, during the 29 years of Justinian's reign, a series of events and changes took place which greatly raised the prestige of Romanian Orthodoxy in the Christian world and made him a representative figure for all of Orthodoxy. On October 19–20, 1948, the Holy Synod approved the Statute that determined the organisation and functioning of the Romanian Orthodox Church; henceforth there would be just five metropolitanates, with thirteen suffragan dioceses, to which were added two Romanian dioceses for the diaspora. In 1950 the Holy Synod decided, for the first time, to canonize several Romanian hierarchs, monks and pious believers, and to generalize the cult of certain saints whose relics are found in Romania. Their solemn canonization took place in 1955. He created a nursing home for elderly priests and monks (Dealu) and for elderly nuns and priests' wives (Viforâta). In 1948, Orthodox theological education was reorganised along lines that would last until 1989: two university-level theological institutes existed (at Bucharest and Sibiu), as well as six theological seminaries (at Bucharest, Buzău, Neamţ Monastery, Cluj, Craiova and Caransebeş). He maintained links with the other Orthodox churches and with other Christian churches. At the head of