St. Dumitru Stăniloae

He was born in 1903 in the Transylvanian village of Vlădeni, the youngest of a large family, and studied theology at Cernăuți and in Athens, Munich, Berlin, and Paris before returning to teach at the theological academy of Sibiu.

Convinced that theology must be drawn from the living springs of the Fathers, he began in 1946 the immense work of translating the Philokalia into Romanian, adding his own extensive notes; the series would grow to twelve volumes carried on across the decades.

In 1958 the communist authorities arrested him, and he spent five years in prison, much of it at Aiud, for his faith and his association with the Burning Bush circle of Bucharest. He returned to teaching after his release, his witness deepened by the suffering.

His many-volumed Orthodox Dogmatic Theology and his studies of prayer and the world as gift made him known far beyond Romania, and he taught and lectured across Europe in his last years. He reposed in Bucharest on October 5, 1993.