Iosif Trifa (3 March 1888 – 12 February 1938) was a

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...

priest and evangelist. He founded " Oastea Domnului" ("The Lord's Army"). He was also the uncle of

Valerian Trifa Valerian Trifa (; secular name Viorel Donise Trifa ; June 28, 1914 – January 28, 1987) was a Romanian Orthodox cleric who served as an archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate Of America. He was accused of being a fascist political acti ...

. Trifa placed on the

100 greatest Romanians In 2006, Romanian Television (Televiziunea Română, TVR) conducted a vote to determine whom the general public considered the ''100 Greatest Romanians'' of all time, in a version of the British TV show ''100 Greatest Britons''. The resulting ...

list.

Life

Iosif Trifa was born in the family of Dimitrie and Ana Trifa, from the village Certege,

Torda-Aranyos County Torda-Aranyos was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in central Romania (central Transylvania). The capital of the county was Torda (present-day Turda). Geography ...

(now

Câmpeni Câmpeni (German: ''Topesdorf''; Hungarian: ''Topánfalva'') is a town in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The town administers 21 villages: Boncești, Borlești, Botești (''Botesbánya''), Certege (''Csertés''), Coasta Vâscului, Dănduț ...

Alba County Alba County () is a county (județ) of Romania located in the historic region of Transylvania. Its capital is Alba Iulia, a city with a population of 63,536. Name "Alba", meaning "white" in Latin and Romanian, is derived from the name of the ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

). He was the 4th son of a total of 6. He was baptised on 6 March 1888. When he was 7 years old, in 1895, he started elementary school in his village, and in 1900 started gymnasium in

Beiuș Beiuș (; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, Romania near the Apuseni Mountains. The river Crișul Negru flows through Beiuș, and the city administers a single village, Delani (''Gyalány''). Between the late 18th and very early 20th centu ...

. Later on, he studied theology in

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

. In 1910 he was named a confessional teacher in the town of Vidra de Sus, which is now the town of

Avram Iancu, Alba Avram Iancu (, ) is a commune located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of thirty-three villages: Achimețești, Avram Iancu, Avrămești, Bădăi, Boldești, Călugărești, Cârăști, Cârțulești, Căsoaia, Cândești, Coc ...

, named after the

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

n Romanian national hero. In 1911 he married Iuliana Iancu, niece to the hero

Avram Iancu Avram Iancu (; ; 1824 – September 10, 1872) was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire, Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especiall ...

. In the same year he was made priest in Vidra. In 1912 his first child, a girl, Olimpia, was born, but she died the following year. In 1914 his second child, a boy this time, Titus Gheorghe, was born, but he also died the following year. In 1916

entered

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on the side of the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

, in an effort to wrangle Transylvania from

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

rule. In 1916, Trifa's third child was born: a boy, whom he named the same as his second, Titus-Gheorghe; this child is the only one who survived. In 1918, his fourth child, a girl, Augustina, was born. World War I ended, but the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

endemic killed both his wife Iuliana, and his daughter Augustina. He was left only with his son, Tit, who at the time was three years old. He was

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1936. This decision would be lifted on 28 September 1990. He died in 1938 in

after heart surgery, and was buried in the city's cemetery.

References

1888 births 1938 deaths People from Câmpeni People from the Kingdom of Hungary Romanian Austro-Hungarians Romanian Orthodox priests Eastern Orthodox mystics 19th-century Romanian clergy 19th-century Christian mystics 20th-century Christian mystics Romanian anti-communists People excommunicated by the Romanian Orthodox Church {{Romania-bio-stub