Dimitrie Comșa

Born into a peasant family in Sibiu, in the Transylvania region, Comșa was one of three sons and three daughters; his father was a choir singer in the local Romanian Orthodox parish.

[1] Comșa was a favorite of Metropolitan Andrei Șaguna, who had intervened to prevent him from being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, and in 1871, his patron offered him a scholarship to study abroad.

In 1909, the government forced him to retire due to the fact that he did not know Hungarian; at the time, the Minister of Education was Albert Apponyi, a proponent of Magyarization.

Active in both the theological and pedagogical branches of the institute, he mainly taught horticulture and the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables, the three subjects being merged as "rural economics" in 1892.

[2] Interested in improving the material situation of the peasantry, Comșa worked to establish an agricultural council for Szeben County in 1888, and served as president from 1893 to 1905.

He made similar statements during the trial, held at Cluj in May 1894, and declared that he knew of no "Comșa Demeter" (the Magyarized version of his name).

Although Comșa resigned from the party leadership after being released, he continued to be active in the national cause, gradually increasing his contributions to Astra by holding conferences and organizing exhibits.

[10] In 1922, after the union of Transylvania with Romania, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan invited the aged Comșa to organize an archdiocesan museum featuring old church objects; lacking qualified personnel, he also asked him to teach his old subjects for the 1922-1923 school year.

In 1926, upon the occasion of his 80th birthday, he was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy, and a festive celebration was held, with around a dozen speakers who included Comșa himself.