BIOGRAFIA ŞI PĂSTORIREA EPISCOPULUI VASILE MOGA ÎN LUMINA UNOR IZVOARE INEDITE ŞI A UNOR TEXTE PUBLICISTICE ŞI ISTORIOGRAFICE UITATE
The Biography and the Pastorate of Bishop Vasile Moga as Reflected in a Series of Forgotten Unpublished Sources and Historiographical and Publicist Texts

Summary/Abstract: The history of the Romanian Orthodox Church from Transylvania during the 19th century has been dominated by the exceptional personality of the metropolitan Vasile Moga, considered to be the most famous Romanian hierarch from Transylvania of all times. The fact that the researchers of the history of the Transylvanian Romanians have focused on the metropolitan Şaguna has directly overshadowed his predecessor in the episcopal see. This historiographical marginalization of Vasile Moga has been also owed to the lack of the primary sources since the archive and the parochial library from Sibiu have almost totally burned in the month of March, 1849. As a matter of fact, each discovery of new archivistic and historiographical sources, both Romanian and foreign, as well as of the press of the time regarding the life and the activity of bishop Vasile Moga is welcomed and we retain it necessary for restoring the personality of this bishop that has been the head of the Transylvanian Orthodox Bishopric for 34 years. The present study aims at bringing a new evaluation of Moga’s bishopric and at realizing a review of his pastorate as reflected in the unpublished sources identified in the Austrian archives and also in the pages of the German press of the time and of the less consulted German and Romanian historiography. My purpose can be explained through the necessity of providing a new perspective on bishop Vasile Moga’s biography and on theThe history of the Romanian Orthodox Church from Transylvania during the 19th century has been dominated by the exceptional personality of the metropolitan Vasile Moga, considered to be the most famous Romanian hierarch from Transylvania of all times. The fact that the researchers of the history of the Transylvanian Romanians have focused on the metropolitan Şaguna has directly overshadowed his predecessor in the episcopal see. This historiographical marginalization of Vasile Moga has been also owed to the lack of the primary sources since the archive and the parochial library from Sibiu have almost totally burned in the month of March, 1849. As a matter of fact, each discovery of new archivistic and historiographical sources, both Romanian and foreign, as well as of the press of the time regarding the life and the activity of bishop Vasile Moga is welcomed and we retain it necessary for restoring the personality of this bishop that has been the head of the Transylvanian Orthodox Bishopric for 34 years. The present study aims at bringing a new evaluation of Moga’s bishopric and at realizing a review of his pastorate as reflected in the unpublished sources identified in the Austrian archives and also in the pages of the German press of the time and of the less consulted German and Romanian historiography. My purpose can be explained through the necessity of providing a new perspective on bishop Vasile Moga’s biography and on the situation of the Orthodox Bishopric from Transylvania in the autumn of the year 1845.

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