Draft:Blaga Mihoc

Blaga Mihoc
Born	(1943-01-01)1 January 1943 Talpe, Bihor County, Romania
Died	17 July 2026(2026-07-17) (aged 83) Oradea, Romania
Alma mater	Babeș-Bolyai University
Occupations	historian, museologist, university professor

Blaga Mihoc (1 January 1943 – 17 July 2026) was a Romanian historian, museologist and university professor, principal scientific researcher at the Muzeul Țării Crișurilor (Țării Crișurilor Museum) in Oradea, in its Iosif Vulcan Memorial Museum section, and professor of modern history at the Greek-Catholic Theology Faculty – Oradea Department of Babeș-Bolyai University. His historiographical work, the result of more than five decades of archival research – 19 volumes and over 80 studies and scholarly articles – focused on the history of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, on the social and economic history of Bihor County, and on figures such as Vasile Lucaciu and George Pop de Băsești.

Biography

Mihoc was born on 1 January 1943 in the village of Talpe, Bihor County. He was a cousin of the poet Gheorghe Pituț. He finished high school in Beiuș in 1960 and graduated in 1965 from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. He held a doctorate in historical sciences.

Career

Between 1965 and 1967 he worked as a history teacher at the Samuil Vulcan High School in Beiuș, and in 1967–1968 as a methodologist at the Beiuș cultural house. From 1968 to 1977 he was a museologist at the Maramureș County Museum in Baia Mare, where he took part in organizing the memorial museums dedicated to Vasile Lucaciu in Șișești – the museum complex opened in 1972, after a first exhibition held in Lucaciu's house in 1968 – and to George Pop de Băsești in Băsești (c. 1975), projects which he conceived and coordinated as a young museologist.

In 1977 he returned to Bihor and worked at the Muzeul Țării Crișurilor in Oradea, first as a museologist and then as principal scientific researcher, first grade, in its Iosif Vulcan Memorial Museum section, until retirement. According to a posthumous portrait by historian Silviu Sana, the memorial museum was his main place of creation, connected to the cultural milieu of the Familia magazine.

In 1995 he became professor of history at the Greek-Catholic Theological Institute in Oradea, at the invitation of Bishop Vasile Hossu; the institute later became the Oradea Department of the Greek-Catholic Theology Faculty of Babeș-Bolyai University. From December 2000 he was titular professor of the Chair of Modern Universal and Romanian History. He retired in 2008.

Work

His research areas were the history of the Greek-Catholic Church in Romania, cultural history and economic history, with an extensive series of studies on the application of the 1921 agrarian reform in Bihor County. He published studies and articles in the journals Crisia, Familia, Marmația, Acta Musei Porolissensis and Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai, and in collective volumes. He was a member of the Bihor branch of the Union of Professional Journalists of Romania and a collector of old Romanian books.

Books (selection)

• Vasile Lucaciu. Contribuții documentare, Biblioteca Crisia, VI, Oradea, 1979
• Istorie și politică, Editura Alibi, Oradea, 1993
• Dr. Vasile Lucaciu 1852-1922. Un luptător pentru Marea Unire, Editura Alibi, Oradea, 1993
• Reforma agrară din 1921. O istorie a agriculturii în județul Bihor (1918-1940), Editura Convex, Oradea, 1994, ISBN 973-95555-6-X
• Insinuarea falsului istoriografic, Editura Familia, Oradea, 1996, ISBN 973-97448-2-6
• Religie și naționalitate, Editura Logos'94, Oradea, 1998, ISBN 973-96838-7-8
• Biserică și societate în nord-vestul României, Editura Logos'94, Oradea, 2003, ISBN 973-8479-01-0
• Valențele emancipării. Etnie, confesiune și civism, Editura Logos'94, Oradea, 2004, ISBN 973-8479-07-X
• Calea adevărului sau cugetul și voința ierarhilor, Editura Logos'94, Oradea, 2009, ISBN 978-973-8479-24-1
• Judecata cea dreaptă, Editura Logos'94, Oradea, 2012, ISBN 978-973-8479-26-5
• with Florina Ciure, Tipărituri chirilice în colecția de carte veche a Muzeului Țării Crișurilor (1643-1859). Catalog, Editura Muzeului Țării Crișurilor, Oradea, 2017, ISBN 978-606-8925-03-5
• Dr. Vasile Lucaciu (1852-1922), Editura Primus, Oradea, 2018, ISBN 978-606-707-259-4
• În slujba cetății, Editura Primus, Oradea, 2019, ISBN 978-606-707-319-5
• Avuție și reformă. Studii și articole, Editura Primus, Oradea, 2020, ISBN 978-606-707-389-8
• Fragmente. Studii, articole, cronici, rememorări, Editura Primus, Oradea, 2025
• Incursiuni în istoria filosofiei, Editura Primus, Oradea, 2026

Reception

Writing in Familia in 2021, book chronicler Florin Ardelean remarked on his working method: "Almost every time, Blaga Mihoc offered books tailored after a long sojourn in the archives. Hence the authenticity and novelty of the texts." Reviewing Judecata cea dreaptă in 2012, the OradeaMea publication noted that "at the foundation of the whole volume lies an assiduous archival work" and remarked on "the historian's interest in the anecdotal", expressed through "original sentences written in a savory period language". About Biserică și societate în nord-vestul României, the "Book of the Day" column of the Crișana daily wrote in 2003 that his "assiduous researcher's efforts" cover lesser-known historical-religious fields lying "under the dust of old chronicles" in archives.

Recognition

• In 1993 he received the "M.G. Samarineanu" Prize of Familia magazine and the "Ioan Bușița" Prize of the Astra association of Beiuș.
• In 2004 he received the "best book of the year" award of the daily Jurnal bihorean for the volume Valențele emancipării.
• In 2013 the festschrift In honorem Blaga Mihoc. Cultură. Societate. Biserică, edited by historian Viorel Faur, was dedicated to him.
• On 14 October 2023, at the opening of the 2023–2024 pastoral year in the Eparchy of Oradea, the Greek-Catholic Bishop of Oradea, Virgil Bercea, conferred on him the "Valeriu Traian Frențiu" Order, the highest distinction of the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Oradea, alongside Professor Vasile Muscă – at the proposal of the leadership of the Greek-Catholic Theology Faculty – Oradea Department of Babeș-Bolyai University – in recognition of his teaching, cultural and scientific activity and of his contribution to research into the history of the Greek-Catholic Church.

He died in Oradea on 17 July 2026, aged 83.

External links

• (in Romanian) Silviu Sana, "Profesorul Blaga Mihoc – personalitate locală contemporană", Biblioteci bihorene, 9 January 2024 (with complete bibliography)

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• 1943 births
• 2026 deaths
• 20th-century Romanian historians
• 21st-century Romanian historians
• Romanian curators
• Babeș-Bolyai University alumni
• Academic staff of Babeș-Bolyai University
• Romanian Greek-Catholics
• People from Bihor County