Romanian priest-martyr St Hilarion Felea commemorated 65 years after his repose

Friday marks 65 years since the repose of Hieromartyr Hilarion Felea, who confessed the Orthodox faith through his pastoral and teaching ministry as well as during years of imprisonment under Romania’s communist regime.

He was born on 21 March 1903 in Valea Bradului, Hunedoara County, Romania, into a priest’s family. After completing his primary and secondary education in Brad and Arad, he graduated from the Andreian Theological Academy in Sibiu in 1926.

He was ordained to the priesthood on 29 July 1927 in the Archdiocese of Sibiu and began serving in Valea Bradului that same year. In 1930, he became parish priest of Arad-Șega.

Alongside his priestly ministry, he attended courses at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy in Cluj between 1927 and 1929 and completed his undergraduate degree in Theology in Bucharest in 1932. On 30 October 1939, he defended his doctoral thesis, Repentance: A Theological and Psychological Documentary Study.

His publishing activity began while he was still a student, and he made his debut in Sibiu’s Revista Teologică in 1924.

Professor and preacher of the Gospel In 1937, Fr Hilarion entered theological education, initially as a substitute…