14 Facts About Nicolae Colan

From a peasant background, Colan completed high school in Brasov, followed by a period of wandering during World War I that saw him in Sibiu, Bucharest, Moldavia, Ukraine and ultimately Bessarabia, where he advocated union with Romania.

Nicolae Colan attended primary school in his native village before enrolling at Sfantu Gheorghe's Hungarian-language Sekely Miko College, where he completed one year.

Nicolae Colan finished high school at the Romanian-language Andrei Saguna High School in Brasov, which he attended from 1907 to 1914.

Nicolae Colan's colleagues included Lucian Blaga, Andrei Otetea, Dumitru D Rosca, Horea Teculescu and some fifty others.

Nicolae Colan's first published work came in Gazeta Transilvaniei in 1915, followed the next year by articles in Revista Teologica.

Nicolae Colan subsequently enrolled in the Literature faculty of the University of Bucharest.

Nicolae Colan taught there until 1936, and was named rector in 1928.

Nicolae Colan helped Balan establish several series of religious books that appeared at Sibiu.

Nicolae Colan founded and then edited Viata Ilustrata, which ran from 1934 to 1944.

Nicolae Colan published a number of books about the New Testament.

Nicolae Colan led not only his archdiocese but guided the Orthodox from the Maramures, Oradea and Sibiu dioceses who fell under Hungarian rule.

Nicolae Colan suffered due to the expulsion, imprisonment and killing of clerics and laymen in his diocese, as well as their forced conversion from Orthodoxy.

Nicolae Colan was involved in the repainting of the cathedral.

Nicolae Colan's distinctions included the Order of the Crown of Romania and the Order of Polonia Restituta.