Alexandru Baltagă
| Alexandru Baltagă | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the Moldovan Parliament | |
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In office 1917–1918 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 14, 1861 Lozova, Lăpuşna County |
| Died | August 7, 1941 (aged 80) Kazan, USSR |
| Resting place | Kazan |
| Alma mater | Teological Seminary in Chişinău |
| Profession | Priest |
| Parents | Ştefan Baltagă |
Alexandru Baltagă (April 14, 1861 - August 7, 1941) was a Bessarabian Romanian Orthodox priest, a founder of the Bessarabian religious press in the Romanian language, a member of Sfatul Ţării (1917–1918), a Soviet political prisoner, and, according to the Orthodox Church, a martyr for the faith.
Son of Ştefan Baltagă, a priest, Alexandru followed the primary school in his home village of Lozova, Lăpuşna County, Bessarabia, then under the Russian rule. On June 15, 1883, he graduated with distinctions from the Teological Seminary in Chişinău, the capital of Bessarabia, after which he worked for two years in the same city as a teacher at the Teological School for Boys. He was ordained on January 26, 1886 as a deacon, and on February 2, 1886 as priest, being given the parish in the village of Călăraşi-Sat, Lăpuşna County. In 1922, the village had 429 households. It was there that Fr. Baltagă adopted and raised two children, Vsevolod and Margareta.
In 1890-1905, he was an inspector for the Orhei church district, in 1905-1926 he was protopope of the 5th circle in the Orhei County, in 1928-1935 protopope of the 3rd circle in Lăpuşna County. In 1931, he became protopope and president of the "priestly circle" of Lăpuşna. Since 1925 till his death, he was member of the Diocesan Assembly of the Archbishopric of Chişinău, and from 1932, he was the representative of the diocese in the National Church Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In 1904-1922, Baltagă was the president of a revisory committee, and in 1922-1935, president of the Administrative Council of the "Union of Orthodox Clerics of Bessarabia". On July 1, 1935, he was retired, but the Metropolis of Bessarabia and the Romanian Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, through a special decree, offered him the exceptional right of serving until death in the Călăraşi-Sat parish. He had the rank of mitrophorous oeconomus.
In 1893-1895, 1898, 1902, 1919–1925, he was president of the School Congresses of Bessarabia. From 1903 till 1918 he was elected each year as president of the Annual Diocesan Congresses of Bessarabia. From 1908 on, he was one of the key aides of Gurie Grosu in the editing and printing of the Romanian language Bessarabian religious journal Luminătorul. In the first period, this journal served also as the diocesan bulletin of Bessarabia. Baltagă made crucial contributions to the establishment and functioning of the diocesan printing press in 1906-1917. Also in 1906-1917, he was a member of the Council of the Birth of Christ Brotherhood, and in 1911-1918, director of the 6-year school for church singers in Călăraşi-Târg.
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