Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church and Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia and Fagaras, Cardinal Lucian Muresan, passed away on Thursday at 94.
"With regret and pain in our souls, but strengthened by hope in the mercy and consolation that come from God, we announce that His Beatitude Lucian Cardinal Muresan (...) passed away . All those who knew His Beatitude Cardinal Lucian, bishops, priests, consecrated and faithful persons, raise prayers for the repose of the soul of the gentle servant of the Lord, with faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, the Risen One on the third day," the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia and Fagaras said in a press statement.
The details of the funeral of Muresan will be communicated later.
Lucian Muresan (1931-2025), cardinal and major archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, was born in Ferneziu, today a district of Baia Mare. He studied in Baia Mare and Alba Iulia, but, during the communist regime, he was expelled from the Roman Catholic Theological Institute and worked for more than three decades in a stone quarry and with the Civil Engineering Service.
Ordained a clandestine priest in 1964, he secretly shepherded the Greek-Catholic communities until the fall of communism in 1989, when he became bishop of Maramures (1990). In 1994 he was appointed archbishop of Alba Iulia and Fagaras and metropolitan bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church.
On December 16, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him major archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic, with the elevation of the Metropolitan Church sui iuris to the rank of Major Archiepiscopal Church. His enthronement took place on April 30, 2006, in Blaj.
Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal on February 18, 2012. Honorary member of the Romanian Academy in the same year, in 2015 he was made an Officer of the Star of Romania National Order.
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