The Holy Hierarch Andrei Șaguna

Metropolitan Șaguna Andrei (baptized Anastasie) was a metropolitan of Transylvania (of Aromanian origin). He was born on December 20, 1808 (January 1, 1809) in Miscolț, Hungary and passed to the Lord on June 16/28, 1873 in Sibiu (buried in Rășinari). Gymnasium studies at Miscolț and Pesta (abs. 1826), higher - Philosophy and Law - at the University of Pesta (1826-1829) and Theology at the Orthodox Seminary in Vârșeț (1829-1832). After completing his theological studies, he entered the Serbian monastery Hopovo, where he was ordained a monk under the name Andrei (October 24, 1833) and ordained hierodeacon (February 1834); professor at the Theological Seminary in Carloviț and secretary of the "Archdiocesan Consistory" there (since 1834), hieromonk (June 29, 1837), protosinghel, ), then to Beșenovo (1841); archimandrite and abbot at Hopovo monasteries (1842), then at Covil (1845); after 1842 he worked for a time as a professor at the Romanian section of the Theological Seminary in Vârșeț and as an "assessor" of the Consistory there. On June 15/27, 1846, he was appointed "Vicar General" of the Transylvanian Diocese, based in Sibiu; on December 2, 1847 elected bishop (recognized on February 5, 1848, ordained in Carloviț on April 18/30, 1848); on December 12/24, 1864, he was appointed archbishop and metropolitan of the re-established Metropolitan Church of Transylvania with residence in Sibiu.

As a bishop, he campaigned for the restoration of the old Transylvanian Metropolitanate, through numerous memoranda submitted to the Vienna Court, the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch and the Serbian National Church Congress in Carloviț, through the diocesan synods - consisting of clerics and lay people - convened in Sibiu in 1850, 1860 and 1864. After the re-establishment of the Metropolitanate (1864), with two suffragan dioceses - in Arad and Caransebeș -, he convened a National-Church Congress of Orthodox Romanians from the entire Metropolitanate, in Sibiu (September-October 1868), which approved the Organic Statute of the Church Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania (sanctioned by the state authority on May 28, 1869), after which the Orthodox Church in Transylvania and Banat was led until 1925. The fundamental principles of this status - autonomy from the state and synodality, ie the participation of the laity (2/3 ) together with clerics (1/3) in the management of church affairs - were the basis of the Statute of organization of the entire Romanian Orthodox Church d in 1925 and in 1948.

In the cultural field, he organized the primary and secondary Romanian Orthodox education in Transylvania, placing it under the guidance of the Church; the parish priests were principals of the "popular" school in their parish, the archpriests "inspectors" of the schools in their "tract", and the bishop (or archbishop), "supreme inspector" of the schools throughout the diocese, principles enshrined in the Organic Statute. At the end of his pastorate, in the Archdiocese of Sibiu there were about 800 "folk" schools, an 8-grade gymnasium in Brasov (founded in 1850), a real-commercial school (since 1869) in Brasov, a 4-grade gymnasium in Brad ( since 1868). At his urging, more than 25 textbooks were printed, some in several editions (by Sava Popovici Barcianu, Ioan Popescu, Zaharia Boiu, etc.). In Sibiu theology courses were raised from 6 months to one year (1846), and in 1853 he founded a theological-pedagogical Institute with two sections: theological (two, then three years of study) and pedagogical (two, then three years of study), buying a few houses for the needs of school and boarding school, for theological students and priests he printed a significant number of textbooks, written by himself or by the teachers of the Institute; he sent many young people to special studies at the Universities of Austria and Germany, with scholarships offered from the funds and foundations he created. She played a decisive role in the founding 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 appears to this day.

As a "politician", he played an important role in the period 1848-1849: President of the Romanian National Assembly on the Plain of Freedom in Blaj from 3/1 May 5, 1848, delegate of the Assembly to present the Romanian claims to the Emperor of Austria, in Innsbruck and Vienna, then the Pest Government. in the following years - either alone or with other delegates of the Romanians - he presented several times memoirs to the emperor, with the wishes 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 dualist Austro-Hungarian state (1867), he was the mentor of the "activism" direction in the political life of the Transylvanian Romanians. Guide and supporter of the priesthood and of the faithful, founder of the church in Gușterița, near Sibiu; honorary member of the Romanian Academic Society (1871), honorary president of the "Transylvania" Society of Bucharest.