Saint Andrei Șaguna, Metropolitan of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania, was born on this day (Dec. 20 in the Julian calendar) in 1807. The history of the Orthodox in the Austro-Hungarian Empire has not been well known to the members of the Russian Church. There were four Orthodox metropolitanates toward the end of the empire in 1918. The Serbian population had special privileges to have a seminary and the seat of their metropolitans in Karlowitz (Sremski Karlovci). Orthodox Ruthenians in Bukovina (Metropolitanate of Czernowitz) were left alone. In the first half of the nineteenth century the rest of the historically Eastern Orthodox population of the Empire was expected either to practice Greek-Catholicism (Eastern rite and Eastern canon law, but in union with the Pope of Rome), or to become Latin-rite Catholics. Only after the Hungarian revolution of 1848 conversation from Roman Catholicism was permitted. This was the plight of the Romanian population. The processes of the creation of ethnic autocephalous churches in the nineteenth century inspired hopes among the Orthodox in Romania. Archimandrite Andrei Șaguna, who received his education in Budapest, became an advocate for the restoration of the independent Metropolitanate of Transylvania, which ceased to exist in 1701 due to a union with Roman Catholic Church. Șaguna also did not want this metropolitante to remain under Karlowitz. To back up his understanding of church organization, Șaguna interpreted Apostolic Canon 34, a cornerstone piece of church legislation, in the sense that the word ethnous should be interpreted as “nations” and not as “country” or “region.” Whereas this interpretation is problematic, Șaguna’s take on conciliarity was more promising. In the words of Dr. David Heith-Stade, whose article I am paraphrasing in this report: “Şaguna’s statute from 1868 was based on the ideals of subsidiarity, synodality as constitutionalism, a distinction between purely spiritual matters and educational-economic matters, a separation between legislative power and executive power, the participation of the laity in church governance, and two thirds lay majority in all legislative and executive organs that were competent in educational-economic matters, and the exclusive competence of the episcopacy and clergy in purely spiritual matters. Parish clergy were directly elected by the parish synod, while bishops and regional protopresbyters (deans) were indirectly elected through representatives elected by the parish synods” (“The Legacy of Metropolitan Andrei Șaguna: A Canonical Perspective,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 3–4 [2022]). Metropolitan Andrei Șaguna passed away in 1873. He accomplished much for the Romanian people, including increasing strikingly the number of parish schools and publishing the first newspaper. The latter can be seen on his icon. |
