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'''Bartolomeu Anania''' ({{IPA|ro|bartoloˈmew anaˈni.a}}; born '''Valeriu Anania''' {{IPA|ro|vaˈlerju|}}; March 18, 1921 – January 31, 2011) was a [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox]] bishop, translator, writer, and poet. He was the [[Metropolis of Cluj, Maramureș and Sălaj|Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș]].

[[File:RO CJ Paniceni Anania painting 2.jpg|thumb]]

==Biography==

===Early life===
Anania was born as Valeriu in [[Glăvile]], [[Vâlcea County]], to Vasile Anania and his wife Ana, the daughter of a priest. He attended primary school in Glăvile and entered the [[Bucharest]] Central Seminary in 1933.<ref name="Official">{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.arhiepiscopia-ort-cluj.org/catedrala/bartolomeu.htm Official biography] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510165553/http://www.arhiepiscopia-ort-cluj.org/catedrala/bartolomeu.htm |date=May 10, 2008 }}</ref>

At the age of 15, Anania, while a student at the Seminary, joined the local organization of the Cross Brotherhood (''Frăția de Cruce''), part of the [[Iron Guard]], being introduced to it by an older student.<ref>[http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/825761/FRAGMENTE-DE-JURNAL-Tineretea-verzuie-a-lui-Anania/ Fragmente de jurnal: Tinerețea verzuie a lui Anania] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028191648/http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/825761/FRAGMENTE-DE-JURNAL-Tineretea-verzuie-a-lui-Anania/ |date=October 28, 2008 }}, ''[[Evenimentul Zilei]]'', October 25, 2008</ref> However, he claimed that within the Cross Brotherhood at the Seminary, politics was not discussed and the group was not anti-Semitic, like the rest of the Iron Guard.<ref name="ziuapatriarhului">[http://www.ziua.net/display.php?data=2007-09-12&id=226542 "Ziua Patriarhului"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002033221/http://www.ziua.net/display.php?data=2007-09-12&id=226542 |date=October 2, 2008 }}, ''[[Ziua]]'', September 12, 2007</ref> Anania graduated the Seminary in 1941. That year, he spent three weeks under arrest, being accused of participating at the funeral of a member of the Iron Guard.<ref name="padan"/>

In 1942, he was tonsured a monk at the [[Antim Monastery]],<ref name="finala">[https://archive.today/20130416112238/http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/776037/IPS-Daniel-si-IPS-Bartolomeu-in-finala/ "IPS Daniel si IPS Bartolomeu, in finala"], ''[[Evenimentul Zilei]]'', September 12, 2007</ref> graduating from Bucharest's [[Mihai Viteazul National College (Bucharest)|Mihai Viteazul High School]] the following year.<ref name ="Official"/> In 1944, Hierodeacon Bartolomeu began studying Medicine and at the [[Cluj Conservatory]], but he was expelled after organizing a student strike against the new communist government of [[Petru Groza]]. Afterwards, he continued his studies at the Theology Faculty of the [[University of Bucharest]]<ref name="padan"/> and the Theological Academies of [[Cluj-Napoca|Cluj]] and [[Sibiu]], receiving his degree in the latter city in 1948.<ref name ="Official"/>

===Communist era===
Anania, accused of being associated with the Iron Guard,  was arrested by the Communist authorities in 1958 and incarcerated at the [[Aiud Prison]].<ref name="BBC-cand">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2007/09/070905_anania_candidatura.shtml "Bartolomeu Anania ar putea candida la funcţia de Patriarh"], ''[[BBC Romanian]]'', September 5, 2007</ref> Another political prisoner at Aiud, Grigore Caraza, accused Anania of having actively participated in the 're-education' of prisoners, a charge categorically denied by Anania.<ref name="BBC-cand"/>

In August 1964, he was freed and only a few months later, in February 1965, he was sent by the communist regime to become an [[Archimandrite]] of the [[Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Canada|Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada]], also editing a religious newspaper called ''Credința'' ("The Faith").<ref name="camarazi">[http://www.romanialibera.ro/a7923/la-inchisoarea-aiud-legionarul-anania-se-ocupa-cu-reeducarea-comunista-a-camarazilor-sai.html La închisoarea Aiud, legionarul Anania se ocupa cu "reeducarea" comunistă a camarazilor săi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092147/http://www.romanialibera.ro/a7923/la-inchisoarea-aiud-legionarul-anania-se-ocupa-cu-reeducarea-comunista-a-camarazilor-sai.html |date=2015-09-24 }}, ''[[România liberă]]'', February 4, 2006</ref>

The short time between his release from prison and the time when he was sent to the United States has been seen as a sign that he had links to the Romanian [[Securitate]]. This idea has been supported by [[Ion Mihai Pacepa]], who argued in a 1992 book that Archimandrite Bartolomeu was an agent of the External Intelligence department of the Securitate who was sent to the United States to divide the Romanian community.<ref name="camarazi"/><ref name="pacepa">[[Ion Mihai Pacepa]], ''Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief'', 1987. {{ISBN|0-89526-570-2}}, p. 284</ref> According to the latest results of the archive investigations, Metropolitan Bartolomeu Anania did not collaborate with the Securitate, "neither in detention, nor in freedom; neither in the country, nor abroad; neither with commitment, nor without commitment; neither with conspiracy, nor with names own, "as he himself stated during his life. His statements were confirmed by the documentary of Ioana Diaconescu (CNSAS researcher) on Bartolomeu Anania.<ref>[http://www.cuvantul-ortodox.ro/recomandari/ips-bartolomeu-anania-dosar-securitate-romania-libera/ Folders for informative tracking], published in issues 10 and 11 of 2012 of "[[România Literară]]</ref>

In 1974, he was recalled to Romania from the United States because of reports which mentioned a possible defection.<ref name="pacepa"/> From 1976 to 1982, he was head of the Church's Biblical and Missionary Institute; afterward, he retreated to [[Văratec Monastery]], where he began retranslating Bible using as source for Old Testament the [[Septuagint]] (since the 1930s, the Romanian Orthodox Church Bible uses as its reference text the [[Masoretic Text]]).<ref name ="Official"/>

===After the 1989 Revolution===
On January 21, 1993, he was chosen [[Archbishop of Vad, Feleac and Cluj]]. Following a controversial decision of the Holy Synod, in 2006, the archdiocese was elevated to the rank of metropolis, making Archbishop Bartolomeu the first Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș.<ref name="finala"/><ref>[https://archive.today/20120730103741/http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/711147/quotLeul-Ardealuluiquot-Mitropolit/ "Leul Ardealului", Mitropolit], ''[[Evenimentul Zilei]]'', March 26, 2006</ref>

In 1999, after the Church's failed attempt to convince politicians to endorse a proposal to give [[Romanian Senate|Senatorial]] seats to the Orthodox Church Synod's members, Archbishop Bartolomeu made two public requests. The first one was that the Church be able to select parliamentary candidates and then have priests urge parishioners during sermons to vote for them, while the second request repeated the proposal of making the 27-member Synod members of the Senate, arguing that the state was never really separated from the church. A law to this effect was drafted but never brought up for discussion in parliament.<ref name="postcom">Lavinia Stan, Lucian Turcescu, "The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratisation", in ''[[Europe-Asia Studies]]'', Vol. 52, No. 8 (Dec., 2000), pp. 1472</ref>

Nevertheless, after the 2000 elections, he reconsidered the involvement of clergymen in politics. In 2004, he made a proposal, which was approved by the Synod, not to allow priests to run in elections, giving an ultimatum to priests currently involved in politics to choose between the priesthood and politics.<ref>[http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1051603.html "Eastern Europe: Orthodox Church Still Wields Political Clout"], ''RFE/RL'', February 19, 2004</ref>

In 2007, he was a candidate for the office of Patriarch, but he lost to [[Daniel Ciobotea]], who received from the Church Electoral College 95 votes, against 66 for Bartolomeu.<ref name="padan">[http://www.romanialibera.ro/a105973/patriarhul-daniel.html Biserica Ortodoxa Romana si-a ales Intaistatatorul - Patriarhul Daniel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302155129/http://www.romanialibera.ro/a105973/patriarhul-daniel.html |date=2009-03-02 }}, ''România Liberă'', September 13, 2007</ref> Following unsuccessful treatment in [[Vienna]] in early 2011, Anania died in Cluj-Napoca of [[heart failure]] and [[aortic valve stenosis]] at age 89.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Mihai Șoica, [http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/ips-bartolomeu-anania-a-trecut-la-cele-vesnice-919909.html "ÎPS Bartolomeu Anania a trecut la cele veşnice" ("Metropolitan Bartolomeu Anania Passes Away")] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204184140/http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/ips-bartolomeu-anania-a-trecut-la-cele-vesnice-919909.html |date=February 4, 2011 }}, ''Evenimentul Zilei'', February 1, 2011</ref> He was buried in the hierarchs' crypt beneath the altar of the city's [[Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral, Cluj-Napoca|Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Elena Nicolae, [http://www.adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/Drumul_lui_Bartolomeu_spre_Vesnicie_0_420558525.html "Drumul lui Bartolomeu spre Veşnicie" ("Bartolomeu's Funeral")], ''Adevărul'', February 4, 2011</ref>

==Opinions==

Metropolitan Bartolomeu was known as a conservative voice within the church. Politically, he asserted that he had always been attracted by the [[right-wing politics|right wing]].<ref name="ziuapatriarhului"/> Voicing disagreement with the [[Western world]], he argued that it is built exclusively on politics and economics, lacking any trace of spirituality, culture or religion. Following the repeal of [[Article 200]] (regarding homosexuality), he decried the Westernization of Romania, claiming that "Europe asks us to accept sex, homosexuality, vices, drugs, abortions and genetic engineering, including cloning".<ref name="postcom"/>

He also condemned the way in which [[television]] stations "manipulate" viewers and use violent programs to "poison the souls of Romanians", arguing that such programs are harming people's personalities and make them unable to tell good from evil.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/15/europe/EU-GEN-Romania-Church-Media.php "Romanian Orthodox church leader condemns television for "poisoning souls""], IHT (AP),  August 15, 2007</ref>

In 2002, he was among a group of intellectuals who voiced their opposition to the building of a vampire [[theme park]] called ''[[Dracula Park]]'', claiming that vampires are not a part of [[Romanian mythology]] (which instead has other monsters, like [[Muma Pădurii]] and [[zgripţuroaica]]).<ref>["Oamenii de cultura ardeleni au protestat impotriva infiintarii Dracula Park"], ''[[Adevărul]]'', April 4, 2002</ref>

While he supported the neutrality of the Church in politics, in 2007 he did join seven other high-ranking Orthodox clerics in signing an appeal against the decision of the parliament to begin [[impeachment]] proceedings against [[President of Romania|President]] [[Traian Băsescu]], calling the procedure "immoral politics".<ref name="ziuapatriarhului"/>

Regarding [[ecumenism]], Bartolomeu argued that unifying all Christians within one Church is a far-fetched goal.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2007/09/070911_candidati_patriarhie.shtml "Biserica Ortodoxă Română îşi alege noul Patriarh"], ''[[BBC]]'', September 11, 2007</ref>

Bartolomeu Anania, as Metropolitan, joined the dispute over the [[biometric passports]], signing in 2009 a public statement (together with all the bishops of his metropolitan see), in which he claimed that the usage of biometric chips in passports is offensive to the Romanian people, whom, he claims, are therefore treated as a potential gang of criminals. He also made clear his worry about the possibility of using [[Microchip implant (human)|microchip implants]].<ref>[http://www.ziua.net/news.php?data=2009-02-19&id=21489 "Mitropolia Clujului: Prin introducerea pasapoartelor biometrice, romanii sunt tratati ca o banda de infractori"]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''[[Ziua]]'', February 19, 2009</ref>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anania, Bartolomeu}}
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:Romanian Orthodox metropolitan bishops]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Romanian Academy]]
[[Category:Romanian male novelists]]
[[Category:Romanian male poets]]
[[Category:Romanian theologians]]
[[Category:Romanian newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Romanian newspaper founders]]
[[Category:People from Vâlcea County]]
[[Category:Members of the Iron Guard]]
[[Category:20th-century Romanian politicians]]
[[Category:Inmates of Aiud prison]]
[[Category:20th-century Romanian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Romanian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century male writers]]
[[Category:Mihai Viteazul National College (Bucharest) alumni]]