Canada
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Romanians of Canada
Romanians of Canada
Migration and Settlement
Many Romanians, particularly from the provinces of Bukovina and Transylvania, immigrated to Canadian the late 19th century, although they had been preceded by individual priests from Bucharest sent to the early settlements of Canada. At that time, Romania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Most of the early immigrants were peasants motivated by a desire to escape living under a foreign government, to own land, and to improve their general economic conditions. By 1895 Romanians were arriving by the thousands. In 1914 there were 8301 Romanians in Canada; in 1921 the number was 13,470. It is important to note, however, that these figures are tentative, since many emigrated from regions which were not part of Romania until 1918, and others came from Hungary, Austria and Russia.
Early Romanian settlements were founded at Regina, Limerick, Dysart, Kayville, Flintoft and Canora (Saskatchewan); Inglis (Manitoba); and Boian (Alberta). Because French has traditionally been the second language of Romania, many Romanians were also attracted to Quebec, where they established themselves in Montreal. Between 1921 and 1929, many new immigrants arrived to join relatives and friends, so by 1931 there were some 29,000 Romanian Canadians. After the Second World War(WWII) a significant number of Romanians immigrated to Canada, mainly professionals who settled in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, London and Windsor. The 2016 census reported 235,050 people of Romanian origin in Canada. Of these, the majority live in the provinces of Ontario(98,235), Quebec (53,060), Alberta (34,225) and British Columbia(31,250). At present, Toronto has the largest Romanian community in the country (50,520 people). https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia....icle/romanians
Boian
The community was named for Boian, a Romanian village in Bukovina, from where the settlers originated. In the fall of 1903, the community began building a Romanian Orthodox Church, named by locals after one in their homeland, St Mary Orthodox Church. It was completed in the summer of 1905. By the year 1909, the need for a local school became more immediate, so a small building was constructed in 1910; later a three room school was built from stone which was the largest rural school in Alberta. http://boianalbertamuseum.com/
https://youtu.be/v2SJWazRitk
Regina
St. Nicholas parish in Regina, founded in 1902, is the first Romanian Orthodox parish in North America. Regina is the seat of the Archimandrite administrator of the Western Canada Deanery of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America (Episcopia Orthodoxa Romana din America), whose presiding Bishop is based near Detroit; in turn this Episcopate is affiliated with the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), based in New York City. While there is no specifically Romanian Orthodox parish in Saskatoon, there is an OCA parish. The Romanian Orthodox parishes in Saskatchewan are all members of the Episcopate. A split occurred in the 1950s between the Romanian Orthodox Missionary Episcopate of America, based in Detroit but closely tied to the Patriarchate in Romania, and the anti-Communist Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America: this division within Romanian Orthodox Christians continues today despite political changes in Romania. During the early years of Romanian settlement in Saskatchewan, priests were sent from Romania, but in more recent times they are more likely trained in seminaries in Winnipeg or Detroit. Some Romanians may be members of the eastern rite Greek Catholic Church in Transylvania (dating from 1697); however, their descendants in Canada have tended to participate in eastern rite Ukrainian Catholic or western rite Roman Catholic parishes rather than form their own parishes.
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Originally Posted by Rędwald
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