Timotei Cipariu, a Transylvanian Erasmus

The Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (or the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic) emerged in the 18th century in Transylvania, a multi-religious, multi-ethnic region (incorporated into the Habsburg Empire in the mid-17th century, today part of Romania since 1918). It is an Eastern Catholic Church which uses the Byzantine liturgical rite, and today has more than 150,000 followers. The Greek-Catholic Church in Transylvania has had an important role in developing Romanian national consciousness by emphasising the Latin character of the Romanian language.

The history of this religion is closely linked to the small city of Blaj, the religious and cultural centre of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in Transylvania. In 1737, the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia and Făgăraș moved there.

The fame of this historical and spiritual place is primarily due to its schools and eminent teachers. In 1754, the first public school in Transylvania that used Romanian as the main teaching language opened here and the first Romanian school books were printed in the local printing house.

Having an irreproachable moral and pedagogical status, the teacher-priests in old Blaj were outstanding models for poor pupils from the countryside. The most prominent figure among them was Timotei Cipariu (1805-1887), a linguist, historian, educator. He was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, and is considered to be 'the father of Romanian philology'.

Born in a family of peasants in a village near Blaj, Timotei Cipariu became a legendary figure, a model for every peasant boy struggling to overcome their poverty and lack of formal education through hard work and study. He proved to everybody that love for knowledge was enough to become one of the greatest scholars of his times, despite not having attended the well-known universities in Budapest or Vienna.

Cipariu's work and activity is impressive. He consistently contributed to various branches of science from linguistics and philology to history, theology, journalism, culture and politics. He wrote studies on Romanian linguistics and history, aiming to prove the historical rights of the Romanian people and their Roman origin. He proposed the usage of words of Latin origin and the avoidance of words of non-Latin origin.

He was one of the pioneers of the Romanian journalism in Transylvania through the periodicals he founded and managed, among which: Organul luminărei, the first Romanian newspaper written in Latin alphabet (1847) and Archivu pentru filologie și istorie, the first Romanian magazine of philology (1867).

Cipariu was one of the founding members, the first vice-president (1861-1866) and the president (1877-1887) of ASTRA - Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People, a cultural association founded in 1861 that had an important role in the development of the national awareness of the Romanians in Transylvania. He was also a member of the German Society of Oriental Studies from Leipzig.

To complete his portrait, we must mention his contributions in the field of Romanian literature: poetry, memoirs, oratory or correspondence and literary history, theory and criticism.

But beyond his accomplishments in various cultural and religious fields, what is really astonishing was his worship for books and libraries. He was the owner of one of the most valuable private libraries in Transylvania. He was also a wonderful linguist: he learned 14 foreign languages all by himself, among which: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Turkish, Persian, Spanish, Italian, German, English and Hungarian.

At the age of 14, he could recite Virgil and Ovid’s works in Latin, and by the age of 16, he knew The Iliad and Odyssey in Ancient Greek by heart. This created a legendary aura around him, with people telling stories about how, having travelled to Constantinople on a horse, he returned to Blaj on foot after four months, with his exhausted horse carrying bags full of rare books.

His research and works were appreciated by his contemporaries. The famous German historian Theodor Mommsen paid him a visit – it is said that he stole one of the very precious Roman wax tablets that Cipariu used to prove that Romanian is a Latin language.

Today, many schools, museums, and reading circles in Transylvania are named after him. Over the years, a whole nation has come to admire his great work and brilliant intelligence.

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