Părintele Florea Mureșanu – Biografie spirituală și ideologii totalitare în secolul XX: Prolegomene la o istorie prosopografică a ortodoxiei clujene

Cluj Orthodoxy in the 20th century, subjected to the drama of a turbulent history, can be understood through an examination of the biographies of those priests whose lives intertwined with the destiny of the Church in Northern Transylvania. The fulfillment of the Romanian ideal of the Union of December 1918, followed by cultural and ecclesiastical development in interwar Cluj, was shattered by the Vienna Dictate, which severed Transylvania from Romania for four years. The subsequent establishment of communism dashed hopes for the restoration of a unified Romania. Four decades of historical terror ensued, during which Cluj Orthodoxy shared the traumatic fate of society. The waves of communist repression also affected the Church, with dozens of priests being arrested and sentenced. This study aims to explore the biography of Father Florea Mureșanu, a complex, free-spirited, sometimes contradictory, exuberant personality with a dramatic and paradoxical destiny. He was both a country priest and a scholarship recipient in Strasbourg and Berlin, a participant in legionary camps and a savior of Jews, a formal member of priestly unions and a supporter of the Anglo-Americans. He was a married priest who, after his first imprisonment, longed for the full experience of monasticism, a theology professor and founder of monasteries, a literary character in the works of Blaga, and a missionary alongside the Lord's Army. He served as the protopresbyter of Cluj and, as a culmination of a life dedicated to Christ, became a martyr in the Aiud prison.