Meletie Covaci

Who is Meletie Covaci?

Meletie Covaci was an ethnic Romanian Catholic bishop in the Habsburg Monarchy. Born in Macedonia, he was a priest of the Greek-Catholic Church in Diosig when, in 1748, Pope Benedict XIV named him auxiliary bishop of the Latin Rite Oradea Diocese, in charge of its Romanian Greek-Catholic parishes. He was consecrated titular bishop of Tegea in the Byzantine Rite by Manuil Mykhailo Olsavszky, Bishop of Mukacheve. This arrangement did not satisfy the diocese's Romanians, who wanted an independent diocese, a separate cathedral, Romanian schools, their own seminary and monastery, and better pay for their priests and archpriests. Covaci pressed these demands, but only obtained better funding for clergy in the 95 parishes extant in 1765. He died in 1770.