Dumitru Staniloae, priest, professor and member of the Romanian Academy, was born on November 19, 1903, in the Vladeni village, in the former district of Fagaras ( now Brasov ), son to a peasants' family. He went to the confessional primary school in his native village (1910 - 1916), then he studied to the "Andrei Saguna" High-school in Brasov ) he studied the first two classes privately, during the summer), after which he studied at the Theology Faculty in Cernauti ( 1923 -1927 ). Metropolitan Nicolae Balan sent him to specialize in Athens, Munich, Berlin, and Paris ( 1927/29 ). He was full professor to the "Andrean" Theological academy in Sibiu, where he received tenures in Dogmatics ( 1929 - 1946 ) and he was rector of this Academy ( 1936 - 1946). He was editor of the "Telegraful Roman" newspaper (1934 - 1945 ). He had some of his papers published in Sibiu. Due to this papers he was universaly accepted as one of the most representatice theologian of the 20th century: The life and Teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas (1938), Orthodoxy and Rumanism (1938), Lucian's Blaga standpoint regarding Christianity and Orthodoxy (1942), Jesus Christ or the Restoratin of Man (1943); he also translated the dogmatic Hristu Andrustos (1930) and four volume from Filocalia ( 1946 - 1948 ); he also published studies in "Revista teologica" in Sibiu in the "Theological Academy Yearbooks", in Nichifor Crainic's "Gandirea" magazine, as well as in other periodicals.
As a consequence of preasure he had suffered from the new Communist state authority, he was forced to transfer to the Theology Faculty in Bucharest ( January 1947 ) , where he taught Ascetics and Mysticism. After the reform in education in 1948, tha Faculty became Theological institute of Universitary degree and he started teaching at the Dogmatics Deapartment. He then published studies in the Orthodoxy and Theological Studies magazines, as well as in magazines in Metropolitan centres. On 1958, November 5 he was arrested and sent to prison for five years, under the charge "attempts against the proletarian Romanian state". He was imprisoned at Jilava and then at Aiud, where many intellectuals and politicians were also imprisoned. He was released in 1963, worked for a while at the Archbishopy Institute in Bucharest and in the fall of 1965 he regained tenure at the Theological Institute in Bucharest, where he supervised doctorate students. He worked there until he retired in 1973. Afterwards he worked as adjunct consulting professor.
He went on publishing many papers and studies in theological magazines, of which the following ones should be mentioned: volums 7 - 12 of Filocalia ( 1976 - 1992 ), Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (3 volumes, 1978), one volume of Christian Ethics(1981), Community and Spirituality in Orthodox Liturgy (1968), Studies in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (1991), The Gospel Image of Christ (1992), Jesus Christ or the Restauration of Man(1942), Symbolic and Dogmatic Theology for Theological Institutes(2 volumes 1958), The Victory of the Cross (1971), Uniatism in Transilvania, Atempt to Divide the Romanian Nation (1973), Commentaries to the Gospel According to Saint John(1993), The Holy Trinity or In the Beginning was the Love (1993), Jesus Christ - Light of the World and the deification of Man (1993), Jesus Christ in the Apostolic Writtings and in Those that Receive the Faith (1993), among other works. He translated from Saint Gregory of Nyssa(1983), Saint Maximus the Confessor(1983), St. Athanasius the Great( 1987 - 1988 ), and Saint Cyril of Alexandria (1991 and 1992). Some of his recent papers have been recently re-edited, others have been translated into French, German and English. He was invited to lecture to many universities abroad, inclusively in the USA and he was granted the Doctor Honoris Causa degree by the Theology Faculties in Paris, Belgrade, Athens and Bucharest (1992). He was elected correspondant member of the Romanian Academy in 1990, and then he became an active member of the same Academy in 1992.
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