Sofronie was born in the first half of the 18th century in the Romanian village of Cioara, now Săliștea, Transylvania, which was at the time part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire.
In this conglomerate, the Roman Catholic religion served to strengthen the other forces of cohesion, dynastic, absolutism, bureaucratic, or military, and provided a political instrument for domination and unification.
In the spring of 1757, the Austrian authorities from the nearby village of Vințu de Jos destroyed Sofronie's small monastery in an attempt to eliminate the violent threat of Orthodox fanaticism in Transylvania.
After some evidence of popular discontent of the Transylvanian Orthodox, Empress Maria Theresa issued in 1759 her first Edict of Toleration, which seemed far too modest in scale to the people concerned, and only served to increase disturbances.
[3] On 14–18 February 1761, at Alba Iulia, Sofronie organized a meeting of the Transylvanian Orthodox Synod, which demanded total freedom of worship in Transylvania.
However, disturbances went on and, to bring back order, the Empress issued a new Edict of Toleration in 1769, which gave legal status to the "Eastern Greek Cult" (i.e. the Orthodox), making it an official religion in Transylvania.
In the end, the Orthodox achieved a notable victory: recognition by the court of Vienna of the legal existence of their church and the appointment of a bishop in the person of Dionisie Novacovic.
Historian Keith Hitchins proposed an explanation for the strong devotion of the common people to their ancient faith, even though the Union with Rome would have brought them many more advantages and privileges.
The climate of opinion prevailing in the village, as revealed by the Orthodox resistance to the Union with Rome, strikes one as ahistorical, non-national, and to some extent millenarian.
Religion determined their earthly frame of reference, for whenever they thought about membership in a larger community beyond the family or the village, they considered themselves part of the Orthodox world.