INFORMATION BULLETIN

The name of Father Moise Balea has a firm and prominent place in the history of Romanians here and in the Old Country.

He was a most remarkable man and deserves the gratitude of all Ameri­cans of Romanian descent for his pio­neering work in the religious and jour­nalistic fields.

Old timers among Romanians in America are quite familiar with Father Balea’s work but it is doubtful if many of the younger Romanians know any­thing about him.

He was the founder of at least ten Romanian Orthodox parishes in the United States and was also the founder of the “America” Romanian language newspaper.

Moise Balea was born in 1878 in the village of Cărpiniş, in the region of the Western Mountains of Transylvania. His father owned a small gold mine where young Balea learned the rudiments of gold mining.

The Romanian Orthodox faithful in Cleveland, a rather small group, orga­nized St. Mary’s parish on Aug. 28, 1904. They had a parish but no priest. In the Orthodox church system, a par­ish must have a priest to function nor­mally.

The elected officials of the fledg­ling parish petitioned the Metropoli­tan of Sibiu, Transylvania, asking that a priest be sent to Cleveland.

Church authorities in Sibiu sent a recently ordained priest, in the person of Moise Balea who arrived in Cleve­land in the fall of 1905, bringing the necessary religious books and articles for the new church.

Father Balea’s arrival in Cleveland was the occasion of great joy among Orthodox Romanians. Lacking a church building, Father Balea held services in rental halls and even in saloons.

Father Balea took the initiative to buy a lot at 6201 Detroit Avenue, in the center of the developing Roma­nian colony.

The next step was to build a church. The young priest foresaw something which the majority of parishioners did not. He saw in the future: that the immigrant Romanians would settle here and not return to Transylvania as so many believed.

Father Balea wanted a church to cost, at that time a great deal of money: $25,000. The parishioners did not agree with him. Instead, they voted to build a church to cost only $7,000 … “since we are not going to stay here perma­nently …”. Bitterly disappointed. Fa­ther Balea left Cleveland to establish parishes in other cities.

It should be remembered that by 1906, Rev. Epaminonda Lucaciu was already well established as the pastor of the Greek Catholic Church. Father Lucaciu also was the founder of the “Românul” weekly, an organ propa­gating the Greek Catholic faith.

Being a staunch Orthodox, Father Balea felt the urgency of defending Orthodoxy, so he founded the news­paper “America” on Sept. 1, 1906 “to defend Orthodoxy and Romanian na­tionalism.” The masthead of his paper carried this famous slogan: “published when I have good disposition, time and money.”

Eventually Father Balea sold his paper to the Union of Romanian Soci­eties of America and it is still being published by this organization.

Besides establishing Orthodox par­ishes in many cities of the United States, founding the “America” newspaper, Father Balea dabbled in gold mining, and in other industrial pursuits but without much success. He had an in­ventive mind but not much capital to put his ideas in practice. He refused to take in partners who had the capital; so many of his good ideas never mate­rialized into reality. But he never lost his composure and remained optimis­tic until he died Dec. 20,1942. He was buried on Dec. 23, 1942 in the cem­etery of the “Vatra,” the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate in Jackson, Michigan.

After leaving Cleveland in 1911, Father Balea filled pastorates in many American cities populated by Roma­nians, finally settling in Detroit in 1938.

In spite of his eccentric ways, Fa­ther Balea remained to the end of his days one of the most popular leaders among Romanians in America.

(First published in the American-Romanian Review, Sept. 1977.)

THEODORE ANDRICA