Mihai Robu

Mihai Robu (April 10, 1884—September 27, 1944) was a Romanian cleric, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iasi. Born in Sabaoani, Neamt County, He entered the Roman Catholic Theological Institute of Iasi in 1894, being ordained deacon in 1906 and priest in 1907. For several years, starting before his priestly ordination, he was in charge of the Iasi seminarians. During World War I, when the seminary was closed, he was a parish priest at Valeni, Faraoani and Bacau. In 1920, he returned to teach when the seminary reopened, and was named secretary to Bishop Alexandru Cisar. In 1922, he was named parish priest at Horlesti and chaplain at an Iasi monastery. In 1925, he was consecrated Bishop of Iasi by Cisar. Among his activities were the building of numerous churches, special attention to the seminary and the opening of a new one at Luizi-Calugara, support for the Catholic press and many visits to parishes in the diocese. By 1943, during World War II, Robu had become disturbed by the treatment Moldavian Catholics were receiving from local officials who derided and harassed them as allegedly being ethnic Hungarians or Csangos. He sent a petition to dictator Ion Antonescu in which he explained that the community were in fact ethnic Romanians, and asked that the mistreatment come to an end. The government agreed with Robu, promising to investigate and punish those responsible. In March 1944, due to the approach of the Eastern Front, he closed the seminary and withdrew with the students to Beius. Meeting with repression from the German and Hungarian armies, he went to the mountains at Finis in mid-September. He caught double pneumonia and soon died. Buried in Beius, his remains were moved to the old Roman Catholic cathedral in Iasi in 1964.