His Excellency Blessed Anton Durcovici |
|
---|---|
Bishop of Iaşi | |
Church | Roman Catholic Church |
Diocese | Iași |
See | Iași |
Appointed | 30 October 1947 |
Installed | 5 April 1948 |
Term ended | 20 December 1951 |
Predecessor | Mihai Robu |
Successor | Petru Gherghel |
Orders | |
Ordination | 24 September 1910 |
Consecration | 5 April 1948 by Gerald Patrick O'Hara |
Rank | Bishop |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Anton Durcovici |
Born |
Bad Deutsch-Altenburg Austria |
May 17, 1888
Died | December 20, 1951 Sighet prison, Sighetu Marmației, Romania |
(aged 63)
Nationality | Austro-Hungarian Romanian |
Previous post | Apostolic Administrator of Bucureşti (1948–1949) |
Motto | Beatus populus cuius Deus Dominus ("Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord") |
Sainthood | |
Feast day | 20 December |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Title as Saint | Blessed |
Beatified | 17 May 2014 Iași, Romania by Cardinal Angelo Amato |
Attributes | Bishop's attire |
Patronage | Diocese of Iași |
Blessed Anton Durcovici (17 May 1888 –20 December 1951) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian Roman Catholic bishop and a victim of the Communist regime.
On 31 October 2013, Pope Francis declared Anton Durcovici to be a martyr of the faith, therefore paving the way for his beatification in 2014.
Born in Bad Deutsch Altenburg, Austria, he left for the Romanian Kingdom together with his mother, a widow, and his brother Franz, and settled in Iaşi (1895). He completed his primary studies and lyceum in Iaşi and in Bucharest, and, in 1906, joined the Roman Catholic seminary. In 1906, he continued his studies in Rome, attending the College of St. Thomas in Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (earning degrees in Canon Law, Philosophy and Theology, including two doctorates).
Ordained a priest in 1910, Durcovici returned to Romania, and was appointed, successively, schoolteacher at the Bucharest seminary and parish administrator in Tulcea. After Romania entered World War I on the Allied side, he was sent to an internment camp – being an Austrian citizen –, until being freed on the orders of King Ferdinand I.