AVERESCU, ALESSANDRO

AVERESCU, ALESSANDRO. – Romanian marshal and statesman, born in Ismail on the Danube on 22 April 1859, died in Bucharest on 3 October 1939. He brilliantly pursued his entire military career, from simple soldier (1876) to the rank of Marshal. He attended the Military Academy of Turin (1883–86) and for four years was military attaché to the Berlin legation (1895–98). In Turin he met and later married an Italian woman of the Catholic faith, who exerted considerable influence on his spiritual and religious outlook. He took part in the Balkan War of 1913 against Bulgaria and then in the great European war (1914–18). He served three times as President of the Council. In May 1927 he concluded with Msgr. Dolci the concordat between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Romania.