Patron of the Parish

Saint Hierarch Andrei Shaguna

Metropolitan Șaguna Andrei (christened Anastasie) was metropolitan of Transylvania (of Aromanian origin). He was born on December 20, 1808 (January 1, 1809 AD) in Miscolț, in Hungary and passed to God on June 16/28, 1873 in Sibiu (buried in Rășinari). Secondary studies in Miscolţ and Pest (abs. 1826), higher studies - in Philosophy and Law - at the University of Pest (1826-1829) and in Theology at the Orthodox Seminary in Vârset (1829-1832). After completing his theological studies, he entered the Serbian Hopovo monastery, where he was ordained as a monk under the name Andrei (October 24, 1833) and ordained a hierodeacon (February 1834); professor at the Theological Seminary in Carloviț and secretary of the "Archdiocesan Consistory" there (since 1834), hieromonk (June 29, 1837), protosinghel, metropolitan "advisor" (advisor) and "administrator" (deputy) abbot at the Iazac monasteries (1838 ), then in Beşenovo (1841); archimandrite and abbot at Hopovo monasteries (1842), then at Covil (1845); after 1842 he worked for a while as a professor at the Romanian section of the Theological Seminary in Vârset and "advisor" to the Consistory there. On June 15/27, 1846, appointed "vicar general" of the Bishopric of Transylvania, based in Sibiu; elected bishop on December 2, 1847 (recognized on February 5, 1848, ordained in Carloviț on April 18/30, 1848); on December 12/24, 1864, appointed archbishop and metropolitan of the re-established Metropolitanate of Transylvania with residence in Sibiu.

As a bishop, he campaigned for the restoration of the old Metropolis of Transylvania, through numerous memorials submitted to the Court of Vienna, the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch and the Serbian National-Church Congress in Carloviț, through the eparchial synods - made up of clergy and laity - convened in Sibiu in 1850, 1860 and 1864. After the re-establishment of the Metropolis (1864), with two suffragan dioceses - in Arad and Caransebeș -, he convened a national-ecclesiastical Congress of Orthodox Romanians from the entire Metropolis, in Sibiu (September-October 1868), which approved the Organic Statute of the Church Romanian Orthodox of Transylvania (sanctioned by the state authority on May 28, 1869), after which the Orthodox Church of Transylvania and Banat was ruled until 1925. The fundamental principles of this statute – autonomy from the state and synodality, i.e. the participation of the laity (2/3 ) together with clerics ( 1 / 3 ) in charge of church affairs - were the basis of the Organizational Statute of the entire Romanian Orthodox Church from 1925 and the one from 1948.

In the cultural realm, he organized Romanian Orthodox primary and secondary education in Transylvania, placing it under the guidance of the Church; the parish priests were directors of the "popular" school in their parish, the archpriests were "inspectors" of the schools in their "tract", and the bishop (or archbishop), "supreme inspector" of the schools in the entire diocese, principles also inscribed in the Organic Statute. At the end of his pastorate, in the Archdiocese of Sibiu there were approximately 800 "folk" schools, an 8-class gymnasium in Brașov (established in 1850), a real-commercial school (since 1869) in Brașov, a 4-class gymnasium in Brad ( from 1868). At his urging, more than 25 school textbooks were printed, some in several editions (by Sava Popovici Barcianu, Ioan Popescu, Zaharia Boiu et al.). In Sibiu, the theology courses were raised from 6 months to one year (1846), and in 1853 he established a theological-pedagogical Institute with two sections: theological (two, then three years of study) and pedagogical (two, then three years of studies), buying several houses for the needs of the school and boarding school, for the theological students and priests he printed a significant number of didactic manuals, worked by himself or by the professors of the Institute; he sent many young people to specialized studies at the Universities of Austria and Germany, with scholarships provided from the funds and foundations he created. He had a decisive role in the foundation and organization of the "Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People" (Astea), its first president (1861-1866); initiated the newspaper "Telegraful Român" (January 1853), which is still published today.

As a "politician", he played an important role in the period 1848-1849: president of the Romanian National Assembly on the Freedom Square in Blaj from 3 / 1 5 May 1848, delegate of the Assembly to present the Romanian claims to the Emperor of Austria, in Innsbruck and Vienna, then to the Government of Pest. in the following years - either alone or with other delegates of the Romanians - he presented several memoranda to the emperor, with the grievances of the Romanian nation; after 1860 he was a member of the Imperial Senate in Vienna, between 1863-1865 a deputy in the Diet of Transylvania, co-president of the National-Political Conference of Romanians (1861) and of the National Congress of Romanians (1863), both in Sibiu; after the creation of the Austro-Hungarian dualist state (1867), he was the mentor of the direction of "activism" in the political life of Transylvanian Romanians. Guide and supporter of the priesthood and the faithful, founder of the church in Gușterita, near Sibiu; honorary member of the Romanian Academic Society (1871), honorary president of the "Transilvania" Society from Bucharest.