Miron Romanul (; born Moise Romanul (); –) was an

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 ...

cleric of the

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

. Born into a peasant family in Mézes,

Bihar County Bihar was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary and a county of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Principality of Transylvania (since the 16th c ...

(now

Mizieș The Mizieș is a right tributary of the river Crișul Negru in Romania. It discharges into the Crișul Negru near Beiuș Beiuș (; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, Romania near the Apuseni Mountains. The river Crișul Negru flows throu ...

Bihor County Bihor County (, ) is a county (județ) in western Romania. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the historical region of Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea (Nagyvárad). Toponymy ...

), he attended the

Romanian Greek-Catholic The Romanian Greek Catholic Church or Romanian Church United with Rome is a ''sui iuris'' Eastern Catholic Church, in full union with the Catholic Church. It has the rank of a Major Archbishop, Major Archiepiscopal Church and it uses the Byzanti ...

gymnasium in nearby

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 ...

, followed by the Hungarian high school in

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

.Păcurariu, p. 172 He then studied theology in Arad from 1846 to 1849. At Arad, he was secretary and, from 1863, diocesan adviser. He was tonsured a monk in 1857 at the

Hodoș-Bodrog Monastery The Hodoș-Bodrog Monastery is one of the oldest monastic institutions in Romania. It was originally a Roman Catholic (Benedictine) monastery, built before 1177 and destroyed before 1293. The present monastery, which belongs to the Romanian Ortho ...

, being ordained a deacon and then a priest in 1863. From 1857 to 1869, he taught at the theological-pedagogical institute in Arad. From 1869 to 1870, he was school inspector for

Krassó-Szörény County Krassó-Szörény (Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Krassó-Szörény'', Romanian language, Romanian: ''Caraș-Severin'', Serbian language, Serbian: ''Karaš-Severin'' or Караш-Северин) was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingd ...

, from 1870 to 1873 he was vice president of the Orthodox consistory in Oradea, and in 1871 he attained the rank of

archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

. In November 1873, he was elected Bishop of Arad, and was enthroned in February 1874. Elected Archbishop of Sibiu and Metropolitan of Transylvania that November, he was enthroned the following month and remained in office until his death. While a professor of theology, Romanul wrote several textbooks that remain in manuscript. He wrote for the

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 ...

-based '' Telegraful Român'' and for the Pest ''Concordia'' and ''Federațiunea''. Active within ''Asociația națională arădeană pentru cultura poporului român'', he was at the forefront of the Arad

Romanian National Party The Romanian National Party (, PNR), initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat (), was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Tran ...

organization and was elected to the

Diet of Hungary The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale () was the most important political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century, which emerged to the position of the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom ...

's House of Representatives in 1869. As metropolitan, he sat in the

House of Magnates The House of Magnates (; ; ; ) was the upper chamber of the Diet of Hungary. This chamber was operational from 1867 to 1918 and subsequently from 1927 to 1945. The house was, like the current House of Lords in the United Kingdom, composed of ...

, where he defended Romanians' rights on a number of occasions, in particular intervening on behalf of their confessional schools in 1879 and 1883. He guided the activity of the theological-pedagogical institute and helped finance the education of numerous students, offering them scholarships from the metropolis' funds or from endowments it managed (such as that left by

Emanoil Gojdu Emanuil Gojdu ( Hungarian: ''Gozsdu Emánuel'', mostly referred as ''Gozsdu Manó''; 9 February 1802, Nagyvárad, Hungary (now Oradea, Romania)—3 February 1870, Pest-Buda, Hungary) was an ethnically Romanian lawyer in the Kingdom of Hunga ...

). During his reign, new archdiocesan buildings were constructed. In April 1896, he sent out a circular urging his clergy and faithful not to participate in Hungary's millennium celebrations."Miron Romanul"
entry in Mircea Păcurariu, ''Dicționarul Teologilor Români'', Editura Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, 1996

Notes

References

Mircea Păcurariu Mircea Păcurariu (30 July 1932 – 13 January 2021) was a Romanian theologian, historian and priest in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Biography Born in Ruși, Hunedoara County, he was the son of the village priest. He enrolled in the History ...

, ''Cărturari sibieni de altădată''. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Dacia, 2002, {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanul, Miron 1828 births 1898 deaths People from Bihor County Romanian Austro-Hungarians Romanian Orthodox metropolitan bishops Members of the House of Magnates Members of the House of Representatives (Hungary)