Ioan Bob

Ioan Bob, (1739 – 2 October, 1830) was Bishop of Făgăraş and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1783 to his death in 1830.

Life

Ioan Bob was born from a noble Romanian family in October or November 1739 in Orman, near Iclod (Hungarian: Nagy-Iklód) in Kolozs County, now Romania. He attended the secondary schools by the Jesuits but fallen ill he could not enter in seminary. In 1764 he entered as novice in the Basilian monastery of Blaj. After some months, because he could not bear the strict discipline, he withdraw from the monastic life working simply as lay administrator of the monastery. In 1773 he was sent by his friend Bishop Grigore Maior to study in Trnava where he graduated in theology. Returned to Romania, after a period of illness he moved to Blaj where on 25 December 1777 he was ordained a deacon and on 8 April 1778 a priest. He worked for some months in the diocesan chancery. In 1778 he was appointed Dean in Daia Română and in 1779 to Târgu Mureş.

In 1782 the Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, the bishop of Făgăraş Grigore Maior, resigned. According to the praxis the electoral synod was convened in August 1782, and Bob resulted the third voted. Nevertheless he was designated by the Emperor Joseph II on 21 October 1783, probably because he was the only not-monk voted, and confirmed by Pope Pius VI on 15 December 1783. Accordingly he was consecrated bishop on 6 June 1784 by Grigore Maior and enthroned on 2 July 1784.