Vasile Lucaciu la Blaj (februarie 1894)
Vasile Lucaciu in Blaj (February 1894)

Summary/Abstract: In 1892, Vasile Lucaciu (22 January 1852 - 28 November 1922) was 40 and had a very good reputation as one of the most important politicians and journalists who belonged to the Romanian community living in Hungary. He had received a university diploma from Propaganda Fide in Rome, worked as a teacher at the Roman-Catholic high school in Satu Mare, edited and published The Catholic Review and was a priest in Şişeşti. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Romanian National Party (1877) and, since 1892, its secretary general. The year 1892 marked the peak of the Romanian nationalist movement, as the year when the Memorandum was brought to the emperor in Vienna. This was a powerful and dignified manifestation of the Romanian population’s desire to have full rights, like the other peoples within the Hungarian borders. Its international impact was remarkable. One of the most important supporters of the Memorandist movement was Vasile Lucaciu. As a consequence of the two political trials against the supporters of the movement, V. Lucaciu was sentenced to 13 months in prison and was released on 11 February 1894. In the evening of the same day, his Romanian friends and supporters organized an impressive banquet in one of the restaurants in Budapest, to celebrate his release. The participants’ speech proved that Vasile Lucaciu was a very popular figure, highly admired for his political attitude. A few days later, Vasile Lucaciu went to Blaj to persuade the religious authorities to allow him to resume his activity as a priest in Şiseşti (as a result of bishop Sabo’s decision, the permission to be a priest had been withdrawn after the trial). The largest part of the article describes the way in which the students from the Greek-Catholic high school in Blaj welcomed Vasile Lucaciu. Because the students showed too much “nationalistic” enthusiasm, the authorities asked the school’s principle to punish them. As a result, the students of the 7th and 8th forms went on “strike” for several days. The authorities took harsh measures against the students and two of them were expelled from school. The leader of the students was Ioan Iosif Şchiopul (1876-1946), who was to become a journalist, a historian and a diplomat. After expulsion, he would attend the last year of high school at Braşov. The article is based on materials taken from archives, memoirs, and correspondence. Three annexes with documents have also been attached at the end of the paper. The author believes that the students’ strike was an illustration of their strong national feelings, in a year whose importance for the Romanian National Party cannot be overemphasised.

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