Alexandru Rusu

Who is Alexandru Rusu?

Alexandru Rusu was a Romanian bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church. One of twelve children born to a priest in Șăulia Commune, Mureş County, he was himself ordained a priest in 1910. Ordained Bishop of Maramureş in 1931. The church's leadership fell vacant in 1941, and he was chosen its new head in 1946, a decision approved by the Holy See but not by the Communist-dominated Petru Groza government. Arrested in October 1948 by the authorities of the new Communist regime that outlawed the church, he was held in two monasteries, in Sighet prison and then in two other monasteries. In 1957, a military tribunal found him guilty of "instigation and high treason". Sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment, he ended up at Gherla prison, where he died of illness.