Saint Andrei Șaguna

Andrei Șaguna was a Metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania, and one of the Romanian community political leaders in the Habsburg monarchy, especially active during the 1848 Revolution. He was an honorary member of the Romanian Academy. He was Aromanian in origin, his family having settled with Naum Șaguna (Andrei's father) in Hungary from Grabova, now Albania. With the guidance of local Piarists, Șaguna's parents had opted to convert to Roman Catholicism, seeking to obtain a better status than the second-class one reserved for most Eastern Orthodox subjects of the Habsburgs. However, the Șagunas most likely continued to practice their original religion in secret - the future Metropolitan was probably never a practising Catholic. The Șagunas were related to the wealthy Sina banking family. After he rejoined the Orthodox Church while living and studying in Pest, Andrei Șaguna became a monk and started his ecclesiastical career in the Banat region. As he was becoming a convinced nationalist, Șaguna refused to join the "Serbian" Patriarchate of Karlovci's hierarchy in Sremski Karlovci (at the time, the Orthodox Christians in Banat were under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church). Instead, he left for Transylvania - where he was able to integrate within a Romanian-dominated clergy. Șaguna got involved in the movement that sought increased rights for Romanians and demanded that Transylvania would become an autonomous entity of the Monarchy after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (as opposed to the Hungarian plans for a Union of the two). As such, Șaguna was present at the Blaj Assembly in May, where he argued for a moderate position. The respect he enjoyed, as well as his will for mediation got him elected to the executive of the Romanian movement, and soon after he was to be the main delegate petitioning Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and the Vienna government.