15 April
1967 – Metropolitan COLAN NICOLAE passed away (buried at Sâmbăta
Monastery). He was born on 28 November 1893, in Araci, county of
Covasna.
Studies at “Andrei Șaguna” high school in Brașov, at
the Theological Institute of Sibiu, Faculty of Philology of Bucharest,
specialisation at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University
of Berlin 81921 – 1922). Professor of the New Testament at the
“Andreian” Theological Academy of Sibiu (1922-1936), rector of the
Academy (1928 – 1936), editor of the “Theological magazine” (1923 –
1936) and of the “Illustrated Life” magazine (1934 – 1940), general
secretary of the clergy association of “Andrei Șaguna”, member of the
Astra Central Committee, president of the craftsmen meeting of Sibiu;
priest in 1934. On 29 April 1936, elected Bishop of Cluj (installed on
29 June 1936), where he served for 21 years (as well as during the
hortyst occupation), and from 1957 till his death, Archbishop of Sibiu
and Metropolitan of Transylvania. Minister of National Education,
Religious Affairs and Arts (1938); member of honour (1938), then titular
(1942) of the Romanian Academy, a position he lost in 1948, during the
communist regime.
Works: Saint Paul to Filimon or Christianity
and Slavery (1925), Book of Saint Paul the Apostle to Ephesians 81929);
Bible and Intellectuals (1929), Medallions (1940), etc; Translations
from Fr. W. Foerster, Christ and Human Life (2 volumes, 1925; 2nd
edition in 1946) and Emil Fiedler, the New Man (1941); he re-edited the
New Testament in Cluj (1942 and 1945), after the Bible edition of Andrei
Șaguna.
Posthumous: Pastoral letters, Orthodox Theology and
Spirituality (1998). He published specialised studies, translations,
reviews, notes – especially in the two magazines he ran, over 500 tiles.
