Bishop Nicholas Ivan`s wish (1855-1936) to establish a Theological Academy in Cluj was fulfilled after a pastorate of three years. On December 7, 1924 was the official opening of the Theological Institute, which, from 1925 will receive the rank of a Theological Academy. The Academy will began with three years of study, and later this period was expanded to four years of study. In addition to a high quality theological training at the Academy, the best students received scholarships and were sent abroad to foreign Universities (in Athens, Strasbourg, Warsaw, Paris, etc.), and when returned home, they initiated a healthy missionary current. Since 1940 (after the hortyst troops occupied a part of Transylvania) most teachers from Theological Academy took refuge in the unoccupied Romania, returning home after the occupied territories were freed in 1945. In June 1952 the activity of the Theological Institute of Cluj was suddenly disbanded by the atheistic communist regime, after 28 years while the Theological Academy of Cluj brought great benefits to the Romanian Orthodox Church and all romanians in northern Transylvania.

Keywords: Theological Academy in Cluj, Bishop Nicolae Ivan, theology students, the Vienna Diktat, the communist regime

RAREŞ PRUNEAN