Bl. Iuliu Hossu

Iuliu Hossu was born in 1885 in Milaș, Transylvania, Romania, the son of a priest. In the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church, priests may marry. He studied in Rome, was ordained in 1910 and in 1917 became Bishop of Gherla (later Cluj-Gherla). In 1918 he read out the declaration uniting Transylvania with Romania.

In the early hours of October 29, 1948, the Communist government arrested him. He spent the rest of his life confined, moved between prisons and monasteries used as prisons. In his memoirs he wrote: "They have not managed to take your love from me, Lord; it is enough for me." He died in a Bucharest hospital in 1970. His last words were "My battle is over; yours continues." Paul VI had made him a cardinal secretly in 1969, the first Romanian cardinal, and announced it in 1973. Pope Francis beatified him with six other Greek Catholic bishops in Romania in 2019.

Iuliu Hossu was beatified in 2019 by Pope Francis.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.