Ilarion Felea

Ilarion V. Felea (March 21, 1903 – September 18, 1961) was a priest and theologian of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Life Felea was born in Valea Bradului, a village that today is incorporated into Brad city in Hunedoara County. His father was a priest. From 1910 to 1914, he attended primary school in his native village, followed from 1914 to 1920 by Avram Iancu High School in Brad. From 1920 to 1922, by which time his native Transylvania has united with Romania, he attended Moise Nicoară National College in Arad, taking his degree there. Felea studied at the theological academy in Sibiu from 1922 to 1926, earning his diploma at the end. From 1926 to 1927, he was a substitute teacher at Avram Iancu in Brad. In July 1927, he was ordained a priest for the Sibiu Archdiocese, and was soon assigned to the parish in his native village. He continued there for three years, when he entered the Arad Diocese and was assigned a parish in the city's Șega neighborhood. From 1927 to 1929, he attended the literature and philosophy faculty at the University of Cluj, from which he graduated.

Felea remained at Șega for nine years, in charge of the church and small parish house; the parishioners were mainly workers at nearby factories. He edited Biserica și Școala magazine from 1939 to 1945, and was also in charge of Calea mântuirii, a bulletin for parishioners, from 1943 to 1945. In both these journals, he wrote a number of articles on theology and church life, as well as book reviews. Felea's sermons, invariably well prepared and relevant, attracted a number of intellectuals, with whom he developed close relations. On January 6, 1949, after finishing the blessing of homes for the Theophany, he was again arrested. He was taken to a crowded basement for questioning and sometimes held alone in a cell for political prisoners on an upper floor. Transferred to the Timișoara penitentiary, he was tried in October 1949 and sentenced to a year's imprisonment for "failure to denounce". He also passed through Aiud prison, from which he was released in January 1950. and the Arad theological faculty was named in his honor following the Romanian Revolution.

Veneration Father Ilarion Felea was proposed for canonization in 2025 when the Romanian Orthodox Church will celebrate 140 years of autocephaly and 100 years since obtaining the status of a patriarchate. He was canonized on February 4, 2025 by the Romanian Orthodox Church.