Pavelists

Pavelists are a dissident group of Byzantine Rite Catholics who espouse a conspiracy theory regarding the 1958 Papal Conclave that elected Pope Gregory XVIJ. No reputable historian adheres to their beliefs.

The Theory

Father Nicodim Ionescu Gyr (1906-1958) was a charismatic and by all accounts brilliant theologian who gained a following within the Church during the 1950s as an advocate of Traditionalism, the rejection of Modernism, and of being a critic of any attempts to compromise with the Eastern Orthodox Church, believing instead that the Orthodox Churches must "return to the fold." He himself was by all accounts a charming and gracious person despite his unyielding views. He was an ethnic-Vlach (Romanian) born in Hungary and an archimandrite (monk-priest). His few disciples in the current era, the "Contemplative Order of the Brotherhood of St. Basil," which experts on religious-studies estimate to be as low as 57 people, claim that he has an outsized influence on global Catholicism. Only about 6,338 people in the 2024 Hungarian census claimed to be both Uniate Catholics and speak Romanian as a first language, and the Romanian federation has even less Uniates whose numbers are estimated to be no more than 2,500 people.

What is certain is that as of his death in 1958, he was one candidate out of several being considered to be consecrated Metropolitan of Fogaras-Gyulafehérvár (Făgăraș-Alba Iulia, which is actually based in Balázsfalva/Blaj) after the death of its reigning bishop in 1957. The papacy summoned Fr. Nicodemus to the Papal States in 1958 where he was killed in a freak car accident on the streets of Rome.

One conspiracy theory claims that Gyr was assassinated by the Hungarian secret police because he was a firebrand Romanian nationalist who encouraged his people to resist Magyarization and that he had been selected as the incumbent metropolitan bishop by Pius XII on his deathbed. Conspiracy theorists postulate that his assassination was in the interests of SNORist Russia, its puppet regime in Hungary led by the Magyar Népjóléti Pártja, and of the "liberal wing" of the Catholic Church who all worked in conjunction with one another to achieve their goal.

Evidence of this theory stems from several claims:

• The assumption that Gyr was the leading candidate for the post of Metropolitan of Fogaras-Gyulafehérvár and that he might have already been confirmed to that position the day of his death in an auto accident.
• Specific passages of letters sent by Gyr to friends and relatives while staying in Rome, one of which specifically states that if elected he would take the episcopal name of Avram as a homage to the leader of the 1848 Romanian nationalist uprising (his brother always claimed this was a joke).
• Widespread suspicion at the time of the accident which claimed Gyr's life, an accident judged "suspicious" by local authorities. (Note: Hungarian records of the time--indeed as such--are deliberately incomplete.)
• The supposed "mysterious deaths" of several key figures in the 1958 Conclave as well as local police investigating Gyr's death (this is disputed, since the list includes those very advanced in years as well as police officers killed in the line of duty or individuals who did not die until many years after these events).

The theory itself was popularized in Louisianne in 1989, during the Conclave that elected Pope John XXIIJ, in pamphlets put out by various Anti-SNORist groups, many of which are fairly radical. The authoriship of these pamphlets is unknown, nor is it entirely clear if they were written in Louisianne, since they also appeared at very nearly the same time in the Papal States and Italy, Hungary, and Romania. It's also unclear why they became so popular in Louisianne. It's possible that conspiracy theories regarding Fr. Nicodim's death have simply become the hobby of armchair Catholic Church-historians who have a certain zeal for proving outlandish theories.

The Movement

Post-Snorist Hungary has undergone various upsets and crises, including debate over Transylvania, the fate of the Hungarian viceroyalty with its sede vacante (empty throne), virtual witch-hunts to discover SNORist assets who evaded trial and prosecution, etc. Sociologists claim this is one reason a loud minority has taken up the cause of "Metropolitan Avram the Martyr" as a focus for their dissatisfaction.

In general, Pavelists are hostile to the Orthodox Church yet suspicious of papal authority. They distrust foreigners in general, Russians and Hungarians in particular, and revere the Byzantine rite in union with the papacy as the purest form of Christianity. As a group, they tend to be extremely conservative, rejecting (among other things) the ideas of freedom of religion, state-run secular schools, equal rights for women, Ecotopism and socialism, gay rights, the League of Nations and republicanism. They favor PanRomanianism, Monarchy, censorship, and the teaching of creation science as an alternative to evolutionary theory.

Still, it would be misleading to imagine all Pavelists share these views. Many do not. The Society of Metropolitan Avram, for example, are a fairly dignified group of conservative Catholics who nevertheless believe Fr. Nicodim Gyr was indeed a consecrated bishop who was martyred for his faith. Books supporting the idea of Fr. Nicodim Gyr's election and assassination have sold in Hungary and Romania which support more progressive as well as reactionary points of view. It has even been hinted at in mainstream media such as episodes of the television show Abyss.

Others, however, have used Nicodemism as an excuse or at least justification for minor vandalism of Orthodox churches and Latin Catholic parishes in Transylvania and the threats of bomb-scares called on Hungarian and Russians cultural institutes abroad in Louisianne and the NAL.

Some conspiracy theorists have attempted to compiled a list of similarities between this archimandrite's death and the assassination of General Moderator James Wainwright.,