Early Life
Ratiu was born on May 4, 1916, in Scalp Level, Pennsylvania, in the United States, one of the four sons of Elisabeta Chindriş and Grigore Raţiu, immigrants from Romania. His brothers were named Grigore, Ioan and Emilian. In 1921, his family moved back to Romania where he was raised in Moftinu Mic, Sălaj County (now Satu Mare County). In Carei, he attended "Vasile Lucaciu" State High School. Then he studied philosophy at Oradea, where he was a schoolmate with Coriolan Tămâian, who later became a noted prelate of the diocese. Following his university studies, in preparation for the priesthood, he studied theology at the seminary in Blaj.
Ratiu then went to Rome, where he attended the Pio Romano Seminary and the Pontifical Urbaniana University, where he received a doctorate in theology. He was a classmate for seven years with Virgil Maxim (1923-1997), who was also a noted prisoner of the Romanian government for his religious beliefs.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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