Ioan Giurgiu Patachi

Ioan Giurgiu Patachi (or , 1680–1727) was Bishop of Fogaras and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1721 to his death in 1727.

Life Ioan Giurgiu Patachi was born from a family of small nobility in Horgospataka (today Strâmbu, part of Chiuiești, Romania), Kolozs County in 1680. An orphan, he was raised by his uncle who left him in the Jesuits' care. He studied in Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Vienna and later he was sent to the German and Hungarian College of Rome where he remained from 1705 to 1710. In Rome, on 24 September 1707, he was ordained a Roman Rite priest. After graduation, he served as Latin priest in Fogaras (today Făgăraș, Romania).

The first Greek Catholic Bishop of the territory of present-day Romania, the bishop of Gyulafehérvár (today Alba Iulia, Romania), Atanasie Anghel, died on 19 August 1713, and his succession was problematic. At first the Synod of the Church elected a Jesuit, Ferenc Szunyogh, who refused. Later the Synod elected the former secretary of Atanasie, Venceslav Franz, but this selection was opposed by the Habsburg monarch, the Emperor Charles VI, because Franz was a layman. Finally on 23 December 1715 a consensus was reached on the name of Patachi.

He died a few years later, on 29 October 1727 in Alsószombatfalva, Brassó County (today Sâmbăta de Jos, part of Voila, Romania).