Iuliu Hossu

Iuliu Hossu (30 January 1885 – 28 May 1970) was a

Iuliu Hossu was born in 1885 in Milaș in the then-Austro-Hungarian empire to Ioan Hossu (1856–?) and Victoria Măriuțiu. His brothers were Vasile (a barrister) and Traian (a doctor) and Ioan (an engineer). His paternal grandparents were Vasile Hossu (1831–1889) and Maria Sebeni; his paternal cousin was Iustin Hossu.^[1] A nephew was Stefan Hossu. His paternal aunts were Alecsa and Nicolae Hossu (1859–1914). His great-grandfather was Iosif Hossu (1822–46) and before him were Nicolae (1768–1841) and Petre (c. 1525).

Hossu studied at the ecclesial school in

Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia

In November 1918 Hossu was nominated representative by right in the

For his opposition to the government, he was forced to flee his diocese on 28 October 1948 but was soon arrested. He was confined at Jilava Prison and Dragoslavele and later at Sighet and Gherla prisons from 1948 to 1964. He was relocated to a convent near Bucharest from that point until 1970, and was transferred to a hospital there in May 1970.

Hossu opposed the forced passage of Greek-Catholic believers to the Romanian Orthodox Church.^[5] On 1 October 1948 he gave an Exclamation Decree (ipso facto) to the participants in the Cluj Assembly of the 36 Greek Catholic priests who would decide to break the Greek-Catholic union with the Church of Rome. On 28 October 1948, Hossu was arrested in his episcopal residence in Cluj and taken to the patriarchal villa of Dragoslavele, where he was held under guard in hunger and cold together with the other Greek-Catholic bishops arrested. Both the communist authorities and the leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church represented by Patriarch Justinian Marina personally offered him the Orthodox metropolitan chair of Moldavia in exchange for renouncing the Catholic faith and the connection with Rome and Catholic Church. Refusing to convert to Orthodoxy, Hossu was first transferred to Căldărușani Monastery, and in 1950 to the Sighet Penitentiary. In 1955 he was taken to Curtea de Argeș, and in 1956 to the Ciorogârla Monastery.

Following the Greek-Catholic Liturgy celebrated at the Church of the Piarists in Cluj on 12 August 1956 by the three united bishops alive at the time, they were dispersed from Ciorogârla. During his forced domicile at Ciorogârla Monastery, Hossu was regularly visited by Orthodox hierarchs, including Justinian Marina, Teoctist Arăpașu and Gherasim Cristea.^[6]

Hossu arrived again in Căldăruşani, where he stayed with compulsory residence until the end of his life. According to the memoirs of the Greek-Catholic priest Ioan Mitrofan, Andrei Andreicuţ was also among those who visited Hossu in Căldărușani.^[7]

Cardinal

On 28 April 1969 he was created a cardinal but Pope Paul VI reserved Hossu in pectore (to be kept secret). His elevation to the rank of cardinal was announced on 5 March 1973, after Hossu's death. On 22 February 1969 the pope had granted a private audience to Hieronymus Menges and the prelate asked Paul VI to do something that would encourage the faithful and give them a sign that the Romanian people were close to his heart. Paul VI asked: "what?" The prelate then recommended that the pope raise Hossu and future Servant of God Áron Márton as cardinals and to appoint some priests as monsignors.^[8] Archbishop Agostino Casaroli sent his aide not long after this to Bucharest to ask the Minister for Culture whether or not the government would accept the two promotions. The government agreed to accept Márton but not Hossu as a cardinal. Márton learned of this and refused the honor when he learned that the government had rejected Hossu's appointment, with the result that Paul reserved Hossu in pectore and did not make Márton a cardinal.^[8]

Death

Hossu died on 28 May 1970 at 9:00am at Colentina Hospital in Bucharest with Bishop Alexandru Todea at his side. He was buried in Bucharest and his last words were recorded as being: "My struggle ends; yours continues". On 7 December 1982 his remains were exhumed and transferred. His burial place is at the Catholic Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest.

Cause of beatification and canonization

The beatification process – which conferred the title

There were reports that a papal visit to Romania was being planned for late 2018 and it referred to the fact that Pope Francis would preside over the beatification for Hossu and six others if and when he visits according to Archbishop Ioan Robu. The visit did not occur in 2018 but has been scheduled for mid-2019 which opened the door to Hossu's beatification during the papal visit in Blaj on 2 June during the Mass there.

The current

On 25 March 2019, it was confirmed that Pope Francis would beatify Hossu and the other prelates. On 2 June, Pope Francis personally presided over the beatification of Hossu and the six other prelates at Blaj Romania's Liberty Field during his papal trip to Romania.^[9][10]

Legacy

Iuliu Hossu's life was the subject of the film "The Cardinal" [ro] (2019). A street in downtown Cluj-Napoca is named after him.

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iuliu Hossu.

• "Iuliu Hossu". Find a Grave. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
• Catholic Hierarchy
  ^{[self-published]}
• Hagiography Circle Archived 13 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine