ABSTRACT
Absolutely new until now, in the form of a manuscript of the Romanic – Catholic Parish of Faraoani, in the county of Bacău, Ziarul Parohiei Faraoani (The Newspaper of Faraoani Parish) contains precious daily information as for the history, ethnography, daily life of the Catholic inhabitants of Faraoani and Valea Mare, or of the nearby Catholic communities (for instance Cleja Somuşca, Galbeni, Valea Seacă), but also data pertaining to the activity of the Catholic priests of the parish.
Initiated by pr. Iosif Tălmăcel, Ziarul Parohiei Faraoani is split in two volumes, the first starting with 25 April 1920 up to 29 June 1924 (with information dated to 1910) and the second, respectively, from 6 July 1924 up to 12 June 1952. The notes on the pages of the newspaper are inserted as if in a journal, and were done both by its initiator and other priests who carried out the religious service within this important community of Moldavia.
The Catholic communities referred to in the manuscript raise the attention historically or ecclesiastically and from the perspective of the traditional folk culture, the ethnographic framework, of this rural universe being a remarkable one, revealing to the researcher a series of peculiarities with undoubted reverberations beyond the mountains, in Transylvania, wherefrom the ascendants of the nowadays Catholic inhabitants of Moldavia came to this area, throughout the centuries, in various phases.
The author does not have as an aim within this paper to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the document, but just a description, hoping that once immersed in the scientific circuit it will be of use to all those interested by the history and ethnography of the Catholics in Moldavia, pleading at the same time for the permanent use by the researcher of the document, of sources in general, all of them being a constant of any authentic research. The publication of this very precious historical and ethnographical document allowed the author of the paper to add one more stone to the edifice at the basis of the preparation of a history of the Catholics in Moldavia.