Alexandru Papiu Ilarian

Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian (27 September 1827 – 23 October 1877) was a Romanian revolutionary, lawyer and historian.

Papiu Ilarian was born in Bezded (Bezdédtelek), Kingdom of Hungary (today part of Gârbou, Romania) on 27 September 1827. His father was the Greek-catholic priest Ioan Bucur Pop, also a Romanian revolutionary, who was executed at Turda (Torda) by hanging, at 54 years old, by the Hungarian authorities in March 1849. In 1832 he moved with his family to Budiu de Câmpie (Mezőbodon), near Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely), the native village of his father. where he attends the primary school. In the autumn of 1838 he enters the Catholic secondary school in Târgu Mureş. He finished high school in Cluj (Kolozsvár) and obtain a doctorate of laws at the University of Padua. He was active in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

He was a founder and president of the Transylvania Society, between 1867 and 1874. He was elected to the Romanian Academy in 1868. As member of the Bar in Bucharest, he pleaded in court the case of the oxcart drivers from Giurgiu, in 1873. He died in Sibiu (Nagyszeben) on 23 October 1877, and is buried at the Church between the Fir trees.