Fr. Ioan Sabău (en)

Priest Ioan Sabău, defender and confessor of the right faith

I met the worthy priest Ioan Sabău in the spring of 1984, when I was invited by a friend to the six-week funeral of his father, celebrated in the parish of Bobâlna (near Simeria), where he was priest. I confess from the beginning that my meeting as a young deacon (I was only one year and two months after my ordination) with the already septuagenarian “Confessor of Transylvania” – as he was rightly called – was a providential moment, full of the most beautiful impressions and the most useful teachings for the soul. When he found out that I was […]

Memories of a confessing family: Father Ioan Sabău and the priestess Alexandra

How did I meet this family? By a miracle: it was the Blessed Mother who gave me one of the greatest gifts I have ever received – the love of these special people, whom I am not worthy to thank for all they have done for me. Unfortunately for me, I learned little in the company of these people… Father John was a man of the spirit, who lived more in heaven than on earth – and to prove this, I will tell you a story. It was around the beginning of July, and Father was called to a funeral […]

Father Ioan Sabău – Man of God

In western Transylvania, in the villages of Hunedoara and Alba counties, the name of Father Ioan Săbău is pronounced by the Orthodox faithful with a piety that makes them raise their eyes to heaven: “Man of God!” At the venerable age of 87, he left behind numerous churches, built or renovated from scratch, and in the lives of those he shepherded, the memory of a fearless defender of the faith. The hard years he spent in Communist prisons did not deter him from the path that fate had chosen for him. The good Father Săbău does not like to talk […]

Father Ioan Sabău – “patriarch of the people of Hunedoara”

There is a place in Romania that was not on any map or index until the 1990s, because it was home to a man who was dangerous to the communist regime: Father Ioan Sabău. The village is called Folt and is located on the right bank of the Mureș River, not far from Orăștie. The locals say that before Father Ioan came to live in the village, they had never been able to cultivate their fields because of the wild boars that came in the autumn. But thanks to his prayers, the fields are still well cultivated, although in the […]