Saint Hierarch Andrei was born to parents obedient to God, whose ancestors were \u201cWallachians\u201d or \u201cAromanians\u201d, living in the Balkans, who took refuge, in the 18th century, to a few Christian countries of the Austrian Empire, because of the Turkish occupation. When Anastasios, the future hierarch of Transylvania, was born, \u015eaguna family was in the city of Miskolc, in the north-eastern part of Hungary. It was close to Christmas, in 1808. His brave mother, Anastasia gave her name to the new born child, which means \u201cresurrection\u201d. A few years after Anastasios was born, his father passed away. Thus, Anastasia \u015eaguna was facing the troubles of life with three children: Evreta, Ecaterina and Anastasios, who were orphans now, after their father died. Faced with great material needs, she succeeded in making them obedient to God and observant of the holy Orthodox traditions.<\/p>\n
Anastasios was sent to study at the best schools of the time: the \u201cGreek-Wallachian\u201d elementary school of Miskolc supported by the Aromanian parish over there, the \u201cinferior\u201d secondary school of Miskolc, the \u201csuperior\u201d secondary school (high school) of Pest (today\u2019s Budapest), then at the university in that city, where he brilliantly studied philosophy and law. When he finished his studies, young Anastasios could have benefited of a nice career as lawyer, judge or professor. But, urged by his religious mother, he left for V\u00e2r\u015fe\u0163 (in today\u2019s Serbian Banat) and enrolled at the Romanian-Serbian Theological Seminary over there. After graduation, he joined the community of the Serbian Hopovo Monastery<\/em>, where he asked to be tonsured into monasticism before he was 25 years old. He was given the name of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the first called. He was an educated monk, with studies in law, philosophy and theology, with a good command of Romanian (including the Aromanian dialect), Hungarian, German, Serb, Greek, Latin and Slavonic. Nevertheless, the new soldier in the service of Christ, our Lord, grew in humbleness and prayer, working in time and no time to acquire virtues, in devotion and pure prayer, improving spiritually and rising to the likeness of God through knowledge. He was very appreciated by the Serbian Orthodox hierarchs, who asked him to leave the peacefulness and quietness of the monastery and activate within the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. He obeyed and responded to this call and for 13 years he worked as rector, counsellor, metropolitan, seminary professor and as igumen at four Serbian monasteries (Jazak, Be\u0161enovo, Hopovo and Kovilje).<\/p>\n In the summer of 1846, the metropolitan of Karlovci appointed him \u201cgeneral vicar\u201d to the vacant Romanian Diocese of Transylvania, seated in Sibiu; in December 1847, the \u201cassembly\u201d of the Transylvanian archpriests proposed him bishop, having been confirmed by the imperial Court of Vienna and ordained hierarch by the metropolitan of Karlovci, on Thomas\u2019 Sunday<\/em>, in 1848.<\/p>\n He left for Sibiu just on the day of his ordination, where the Orthodox Romanians were waiting for him as for a redeemer. He engaged directly and with much devotion in all the actions of rehabilitation of the cultural and spiritual identity of the Transylvanian Romanians, first of all to recognise them as \u201cnation\u201d equal in rights with the Hungarians, Saxons and Sz\u00e9kelys and to abolish serfdom. From a religious point of view, Metropolitan Andrei \u015eaguna fought with much courage for over 15 years, for taking the Romanian Church of Transylvania from under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Metropolitanate of Karlovci, where the imperial Court of Vienna abusively put it. He won and this fight was crowned in December 1864, when the restoration of the old Metropolitanate of Transylvania was approved (dissolved in 1701 by the state authorities of the time), and Andrei \u015eaguna became archbishop of Sibiu and metropolitan of the Romanians in Transylvania, Banat, and of the \u201cWestern parts\u201d (Cri\u015fana). Then, he worked out a law known as the Organic Statute<\/em>, approved by a Church National Congress in 1868, which stipulated the autonomy of this Church in relation to the state, as well as the participation of the lay people in the leadership of church life, in the administrative and economical fields. The Church of Transylvania was run in accordance with this statute until 1925, but the basic principles have been kept in the following Statutes too, up to the present.<\/p>\n Metropolitan Andrei was a true \u201cfounder\u201d of the Romanian education and culture of Transylvania. He re-organised the old theological school of Sibiu as Theological Pedagogical Institute, with two \u201csections\u201d, where the future priests were prepared, as well as the teachers of about 800 primary schools of Transylvania, supervised by the Church (more than half set up in his time). He has also organised the eight forms secondary school of Bra\u015fov (the present \u201cAndrei \u015eaguna\u201d College), a secondary school in Brad, county of Hunedoara, a \u201creal-commercial\u201d school in Bra\u015fov, and courses for the illiterate people of every parish. He set up a \u201cdiocesan publishing house\u201d in Sibiu, where he printed \u201cTelegraful rom\u00e2n\u201d newspaper (uninterruptedly published from January 1853 until today), the eparchial \u201cCalendar\u201d (today\u2019s \u201c\u00cendrum\u0103torul bisericesc\u201d, since 1852 until today), a series of manuals for the primary schools, as well as for the theological education (some of them drafted by himself), all the liturgical books, some of them in several editions, a new edition of the Bible<\/em>, in 1856-1858, etc. It was also \u015eaguna who obtained the agreement of the authorities to set up the Transylvanian Association for the Literature and Culture of the Romanian People (ASTRA). <\/em>He granted scholarships from the Archdiocese\u2019s funds to the young people who were attending secondary and academic studies, who formed the intellectual elite of Transylvania of the time.<\/p>\n He organised the present metropolitan residence of Sibiu, founded the church of Gu\u015fteri\u0163a (a district of Sibiu today) and urged the priests and faithful to contribute with money and physical work to the construction of churches and school buildings. He was going to build a cathedral in Sibiu, but he could not collect the money necessary for beginning the construction. He was a great man of prayer and fasting, a perfect celebrant, preacher and shepherd of souls, who has always been in touch with the clergy and faithful.<\/p>\n He passed away on 16\/28 June 1873, and he was buried near the big church of R\u0103\u015finari, as he mentioned in his will, the funeral service being officiated by only one priest, \u201cwithout sermon and pomp\u201d. In spite of his true monastic humbleness, the righteous people properly honoured him also after his death, considering him one of the most outstanding hierarchs of Transylvania. <\/p>\n The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church placed him among the saints on 21 July 2011, celebrated on 30 November.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saint Hierarch Andrei was born to parents obedient to God, whose ancestors were \u201cWallachians\u201d or \u201cAromanians\u201d, living in the Balkans, who took refuge, in the 18th century, to a few Christian countries of the Austrian Empire, because of the Turkish occupation. When Anastasios, the future hierarch of Transylvania, was born, \u015eaguna family was in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-romanian-patriarchate"],"yoast_head":"\n