Alexandru Papiu Ilarian

Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian (27 September 1827 – 23 October [O.S. 11 October] 1877) was a Romanian revolutionary, lawyer and historian.[1]

Alexandru Papiu Ilarian

Papiu Ilarian was born in Bezded (Hungarian: Bezdédtelek), Kingdom of Hungary (today part of Gârbou, Romania) on 27 September 1827.[2] His father was the Greek-catholic priest Ioan Bucur Pop, also a Romanian revolutionary, who was executed at Turda (Hungarian: Torda) by hanging, at 54 years old, by the Hungarian authorities in March 1849.[3][4] In 1832 he moved with his family to Budiu de Câmpie (Hungarian: Mezőbodon), near Târgu Mureș (Hungarian: Marosvásárhely), the native village of his father.[5] where he attends the primary school. In the autumn of 1838 he enters the Catholic secondary school in Târgu Mureş.[6] He finished high school in Cluj (Hungarian: Kolozsvár) and obtain a doctorate of laws at the University of Padua.[7][8] He was active in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

He was a founder and president of the Transylvania Society, between 1867 and 1874. He was elected to the Romanian Academy in 1868.[9] As member of the Bar in Bucharest, he pleaded in court the case of the oxcart drivers from Giurgiu, in 1873.[10] He died in Sibiu (Hungarian: Nagyszeben) on 23 October 1877, and is buried at the Church between the Fir trees.