Paper short abstract:

Transylvanians of different ethnicity and religious affiliation ask for the help of the Romanian Orthodox priests in case of serious illnesses or troubles, supposed to be caused by witchcraft. Religious healing alternates with the biomedical investigations, healing processes and controls.

Paper long abstract:

Witchcraft beliefs are still powerful in contemporary Romania. While the capital city is hosting the newly emerging post socialist witch-business-women, advertising services in the TV, newspapers, journals and the electronic media, the countryside is more traditional. In the Transylvanian Aries region, where I conducted fieldwork for several years, professional magicians, fortune tellers do occur, but suspicions and accusations of witchcraft are mainly tied to the close ones, neighbors or relatives. People are supposed to do magic by themselves, making use of their own knowledge. Illnesses and social ills are interpreted and reinterpreted, depending on the results of curing alternatives. Biomedical treatment follows usually the domestic/popular ones (herbs, magical rites); if biomedical investigation ends without a diagnosis, or treatment turns out to be without effect, suspicions of witchcraft arise and the patient is taken to a 'stronger' witch or a Romanian Orthodox priest. The troubled person (or a relative) will fast and pray parallel with the priest, but the priest's prayers are believed to be the most effective cure in cases of witchcraft. The result is felt, but the patient usually returns to the medical doctor, as he/she considers important having a feedback from the biomedical side as well. Romanian Orthodox Church has clearly great advantages in caring of the sick and the troubled in Transylvania; all the ethnic categories and people of all the historical religions turn to the Orthodox for help. Their hegemony in this field is only challenged by the Charismatic Christians during the last decades.