Iuliu Hossu

Iuliu Hossu (30 January 1885 – 28 May 1970) was a Romanian Greek-Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Cluj-Gherla. Pope Paul VI elevated Hossu to the rank of cardinal in pectore, that is, secretly, in 1969 but did not publish his appointment until after Hossu's death. The Communist authorities arrested Hossu on 28 October 1948. From 1950 to 1955 he was detained as political prisoner at the Sighet Prison. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest and died in 1970. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a martyr and blessed, having been beatified by Pope Francis.

Life Education and priesthood

Iuliu Hossu was born in 1885 in Milaș in the then-Austro-Hungarian empire to Ioan Hossu (1856–?) and Victoria Măriuțiu. His brothers were Vasile (a barrister) and Traian (a doctor) and Ioan (an engineer). His paternal grandparents were Vasile Hossu (1831–1889) and Maria Sebeni; his paternal cousin was Iustin Hossu. On 1 December 1918 Hossu read the Resolution of the National Assembly in front of the crowds gathered in Alba Iulia, preceding it with the following words: "Brethren, the hour of fulfillment is this one, when God Almighty is speaking out His centuries-old longing for justice through His faithful people. Today, by our decision, Greater Romania is achieved, one and indivisible, all Romanians from these lands happily calling: We are joining forever our Motherland, Romania! [..] Justice has prevailed". Next day, at Iuliu Maniu's proposal, the High National Romanian Council mandated representatives Vasile Goldiș, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Iuliu Hossu, and Miron Cristea to go to King Ferdinand I and present him with the Resolution of the National Assembly. Hossu was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne on 16 September 1936 which made him a monsignor. He also made the Apostolic Administrator of Oradea Mare from 1941 until 1947 when Pope Pius XII appointed him as such.

Communist repression, forced attempts at union with Orthodox Church

For his opposition to the government, he was forced to flee his diocese on 28 October 1948 but was soon arrested. He was confined at Jilava Prison and Dragoslavele and later at Sighet and Gherla prisons from 1948 to 1964. He was relocated to a convent near Bucharest from that point until 1970, and was transferred to a hospital there in May 1970.

Hossu opposed the forced passage of Greek-Catholic believers to the Romanian Orthodox Church. On 1 October 1948 he gave an Exclamation Decree (ipso facto) to the participants in the Cluj Assembly of the 36 Greek Catholic priests who would decide to break the Greek-Catholic union with the Church of Rome. On 28 October 1948, Hossu was arrested in his episcopal residence in Cluj and taken to the patriarchal villa of Dragoslavele, where he was held under guard in hunger and cold together with the other Greek-Catholic bishops arrested. Both the communist authorities and the leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church represented by Patriarch Justinian Marina personally offered him the Orthodox metropolitan chair of Moldavia in exchange for renouncing the Catholic faith and the connection with Rome and Catholic Church. Refusing to convert to Orthodoxy, Hossu was first transferred to Căldărușani Monastery, and in 1950 to the Sighet Penitentiary. In 1955 he was taken to Curtea de Argeș, and in 1956 to the Ciorogârla Monastery.

Following the Greek-Catholic Liturgy celebrated at the Church of the Piarists in Cluj on 12 August 1956 by the three united bishops alive at the time, they were dispersed from Ciorogârla. During his forced domicile at Ciorogârla Monastery, Hossu was regularly visited by Orthodox hierarchs, including Justinian Marina, Teoctist Arăpașu and Gherasim Cristea.

Hossu arrived again in Căldăruşani, where he stayed with compulsory residence until the end of his life. According to the memoirs of the Greek-Catholic priest Ioan Mitrofan, Andrei Andreicuţ was also among those who visited Hossu in Căldărușani.

Cardinal

On 28 April 1969 he was created a cardinal but Pope Paul VI reserved Hossu in pectore (to be kept secret). His elevation to the rank of cardinal was announced on 5 March 1973, after Hossu's death. On 22 February 1969 the pope had granted a private audience to Hieronymus Menges and the prelate asked Paul VI to do something that would encourage the faithful and give them a sign that the Romanian people were close to his heart. Paul VI asked: "what?" The prelate then recommended that the pope raise Hossu and future Servant of God Áron Márton as cardinals and to appoint some priests as monsignors. Archbishop Agostino Casaroli sent his aide not long after this to Bucharest to ask the Minister for Culture whether or not the government would accept the two promotions. The government agreed to accept Márton but not Hossu as a cardinal. Márton learned of this and refused the honor when he learned that the government had rejected Hossu's appointment, with the result that Paul reserved Hossu in pectore and did not make Márton a cardinal.

In June of 2025, Pope Leo XIV honored Hossu at a ceremony in the Sistine Chapel, along with a delegation from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church and Romanian Jews.

Legacy Iuliu Hossu's life was the subject of the film (2019). A street in downtown Cluj-Napoca is named after him.

The Cathedral of the Entry of the Virgin Mary into the Temple, in Gherla, where Iuliu Hossu served, has been owned by the Romanian Orthodox Church since 1948. As of 2026, it has not been returned to the Greek Catholic community.

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