Porumbăcean, Claudiu (szerk.): Satu Mare. Studii şi comunicări. Seria istorie-etnografie-artă 35/2. Volum aniversar 1969-2019 (2019)
Istorie
ROMÂNII SĂTMĂRENI ÎN APĂRAREA LICEULUI ROMÂNESC DE LA BEIUS> Mihaela SĂLCEANU Abstract: The cornerstone of the Beiuş gymnasium was laid by the Greek Catholic bishop Samuil Vulcan, according to a document dated October 6th1828. The founding of the gymnasium was an event of great significance for the Romanians in Transylvania, since it trained Romanian intellectuals which became the forebearers of cultural and political emancipation of Transylvanian Romanians. The hungarization offensive made way towards the Beiuş highschool, the only Romanian highschool in the Western regions of Transylvania which during the 1852- 1890 period prepared over 725future intellectuals. Founded by the great Romanian pariot Samuil Vulcan, the school didn’t just train people of great intellectual tenure, but also forged characters, reinforcing in young Vulcanians love for the People and Nation and their faith towards God, shaping powerful personalities, like that schoolboy Borgovan, the 6th grader which in 1888, on the occasion of the visitation by the Hungarian Roman Catholic bishop of Oradea in town, took down the Hungarian flag, a deed for which he was sentenced to one month in prison and afine of 50 guldens. This deed was also followed by the dismissal of headmaster Petru Mihuţ and three members of the teaching corps, and Hungarian language was imposed for all disciplines in the upper grades of the gymnasium, except for religion and Romanian language, a situation that persisted up to the end of World War I. Bishop Mihail Pavel managed to maintain the national and ecclesiastical character of the institute. Even if Hungarian was the teaching languaged, he lived by the conviction that Romanian youth led and instructed by these heroes will come victorious out of school. The Satu Mare citizens solidarity is manifesting in 1881 too, when the Beiuş highschool was in a critical situation and it had to adapt itself to the demands of the 1879 public education law. To ensure the necessary funding, headmaster Petru Mihuţ launches an appeal to Romanians, demanding support for this highschool by donations. Donated money was meager and came from modest countryside priests, schoolmasters, pupils and peasants. From Satu Mare we may record George Mureşan, Sabin Coroianu, Archpriest George Papp, loan Fărcaş etc. The Hungarian government’s attitude caused a vehement reaction from either priests or Romanian public opinion. Worth mentioning are the general assemblies held in the 8 priories of Satu Mare in the month of April 1890, which supported the cause of the Beiuş gymnasium, stating that this situation might extend anytime upon the town of Satu Mare itself, drafting a statement to be sent to the bishop of Oradea. The draft contained ideas regarding use of Romanian language in schools, which we will find again later in the 1892 Memorandum. Keywords: Beiuş gymnasium, Satu Mare, Mihai Pavel, sinod episcopal. Satu Mare - Studii şi Comunicări, nr. XXXV/II, 2019, p. 39-67
