Bucharest, July 2, 2026
Photo: basilica.ro
Romania’s Chamber of Deputies has voted to designate Archpriest Aurel Munteanu, an Orthodox priest killed in 1940, as a martyr and hero of the Romanian nation.
The bill passed Tuesday by a vote of 276 to one, with no abstentions, and now goes to the president for promulgation, reports the Basilica News Agency.
The legislation recognizes Fr. Aurel’s contributions to the Church, education, culture, and national life in the Huedin and Vlădeasa Mountains region, and his death on September 10, 1940 at the hands of Horthyist authorities who had taken control of Northern Transylvania following the Second Vienna Award.
The law also establishes September 10 as the Day of the Romanian Martyrs of Huedin, commemorating Fr. Aurel, Gendarme Gheorghe Nicula, and other Romanians killed in those events, and authorizes government bodies and cultural institutions in Romania and abroad to hold commemorative and academic events on that date.
Fr. Dan Lupuțan, Dean of Huedin, said Fr. Aurel had contributed to the Church and to Romanian society across multiple areas, founding churches, schools, and cultural publications, serving as a county councillor, and winning election to the first Parliament of Greater Romania after 1918.
“Granting Archpriest Aurel Munteanu the legal title of Hero and Martyr of the Romanian Nation is an act of historical justice through which the Romanian state pays tribute to a man who served both the Church and the Romanian people with complete devotion,” he said.
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Photo: basilica.ro
Fr. Aurel was born on May 2, 1882, in Merghindeal, Sibiu County. After completing theological studies in Sibiu and being ordained, he was appointed parish priest of Huedin in 1918 and became the first dean of the Orthodox deanery established there following the Great Union of 1918. He founded the Orthodox Cathedral in Huedin and was an active supporter of local Romanian schools and community life.
After the Second Vienna Award of August 30, 1940, transferred Northern Transylvania to Hungary, Munteanu refused to leave Huedin despite being urged to flee. He was tortured and killed by Horthyist extremists on September 10, 1940.
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