Andrei Mocioni de Foen (also spelled Andrea de Mocioni or Andreiu Mocionĭ, last name also Mocsonyi, Mocsoni, Mocionyi or Mocsony; or Andreas von Mocsonyi, ; June 27, 1812 – April 23/May 5, 1880) was an Austrian and Hungarian jurist, politician, and informal leader of the ethnic Romanian community, one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy. Of a mixed Aromanian and Albanian background, raised as a Greek Orthodox, he belonged to the Mocioni family, which had been elevated to Hungarian nobility. He was brought up at his family estate in the Banat, at Foeni, where he joined the administrative apparatus, and identified as a Romanian since at least the 1830s. He rose to prominence during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848: he was a supporter of the House of Lorraine, trying to obtain increased autonomy for Banat Romanians in exchange for loyalism. The Austrians appointed Mocioni to an executive position over that region, but curbed his expectations by including the Banat as a whole into the Voivodeship of Serbia. This disappointment pushed Mocioni to renounce politics during much of the 1850s.
The attempt by Austria to ensure a new administrative formula in the 1860s saw Mocioni's co-option into the Imperial Diet. He also organized, in 1860, the National Assembly in the Banat—an abortive project, seeking to obtain autonomy on ethnic grounds. He then oscillated between ethnic federalism within a nominal Hungarian realm and full centralism in Austria's custody, while failing in his bid to promote election boycott as a political weapon. He had noted political rivalries with Romanians who sided with Hungarian radicalism, in particular Eftimie Murgu. Serving one full term in the Diet of Hungary, Mocioni also turned to cooperation with the Romanians of Transylvania, and helped Andrei Șaguna to reestablish an independent Transylvanian Metropolis for Romanian Orthodox Christians. Alongside his brothers Gheorghe and Anton, and his lawyer Vincențiu Babeș, he founded the newspaper Albina of Vienna.
The creation of Austria-Hungary and the Banat's absorption into the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen were significant blows for Mocioni's nationalist-loyalist campaign. Mocioni withdrew to Foeni, ailing and out of the public eye for the final decade of his life. He was still a noted philanthropist and sponsor of the Romanian press, but had conflicts with Krassó County voters and the Romanian peasants on his estates, a matter which contributed to his voluntary isolation. He was survived by his wife Laura, daughter of Petar Čarnojević, and by his nephew, the politician Alexandru Mocioni.
Biography Origins and early life The Mocionis were probably descended from Petru Mucină, an Aromanian (or "Macedo-Romanian") priest from Aspropotamos in Thessaly or Moscopole, who declared loyalty to the Habsburg monarchy and served in the Great Turkish War.Colta, p. 66; Deheleanu, p. 216. See also Bugariu, p. 399 He and one of his brothers were killed in action somewhere in the Banat.Deheleanu, p. 216 Archpriest Constantin Mocioni, or "Constantinus Motsonyi", who may have been Mucină's son, settled among the Greek Orthodox (Greek, Romanian, and Aromanian) community of Pest in the 1740s.Berényi, pp. 213–214; Colta, p. 66; Deheleanu, pp. 216–217 Family documents suggest that he was originally from Moscopole, and that he died at 110 years of age; under his watch, the family established lucrative businesses and began purchasing estates in Hungary and the Banat.Berényi, pp. 22–23, 112, 213–214; Deheleanu, pp. 216–217; Tiron, pp. 28–29, 31–32 His two sons Andrei and Mihai were raised into the nobility by King-Emperor Joseph II: the former in February 1783, the latter in June 1798, after distinguished service in the War of the First Coalition.Berényi, pp. 214–215; Colta, pp. 66–67, 83; Deheleanu, p. 217; Tiron, pp. 31–35 The Mocionis were thus one of some 200 Aromanian families to receive titles, and became integrated with the 12,500 Romanian noble families attested in Hungary by 1800 (from a total 340,000).Tiron, pp. 29, 31–32
Andrei the elder was killed in mysterious circumstances before he could receive his diploma, but this was granted to his wife. Ștefan Both, "Cum și-au bătut joc de conacul familiei Mocioni de la Foeni. A fost pe rând baie comunală, grădiniță, depozit, sală de sport și discotecă", in Adevărul (Timișoara edition), October 21, 2015 The more senior branch established by them became known as Mocioni de Foen, or fényi Mocsonyi, in reference to its core estate of Foeni (Fény). This was by contrast with Mihai's descendants, the armalist Mocionis, who did not hold a titular estate—although they built a manor at Marosberkes (now Birchiș, Romania), they were mostly based in Pest, where they founded the Kefala Library.Colta, pp. 66–70 Andrei the second was a grandson of the original Andrei, born to lawyer Ioan Mocioni de Foen (1780–1854) and his wife Iuliana Panaiot (1787–1858).Tiron, pp. 28, 32 On his mother's side, Andrei had Albanian roots.Theodor Capidan, "Românii din Macedonia. Rolul Românilor Macedoneni în Ardeal. IV", in Cultura Poporului, Issue 30/1923, p. 1Atanasie Marian Marienescu, "Macedo-Românii din Ungaria", in V. A. Urechia, Albumul Macedo-Român, p. 72. Bucharest: Socecŭ, Sander & Teclu, 1880. He had an elder brother, Petru, born in 1808, and two junior ones: Anton and Gheorghe (born 1816 and 1823, respectively).Deheleanu, p. 219; Tiron, pp. 30, 31, 32 Other siblings included brothers George and Lucian (the latter of whom died young) and sister Ecaterina.Deheleanu, p. 219 Ioan and Iuliana together had as many as 11 other children.Berényi, p. 184; Deheleanu, p. 219 Andrei was simultaneously the uncle and cousin of writer Alexandru Mocioni, born from a consanguine marriage between Ecaterina and her uncle Mihai Mocioni.Berényi, p. 137; Colta, pp. 71–74; Deheleanu, p. 218; Tiron, p. 32
Andrei the younger was a native of Pest, but grew up mostly in Foeni where, according to scholar Păun Otiman, he received "a profoundly Christian Orthodox education, inspired by Macedo-Romanian traditions and culture".Otiman, p. 27 Originally, the Mocionis only spoke Aromanian and Hungarian.Berényi, p. 214 Nevertheless, the family encouraged intercultural contacts, with Ioan speaking as many as eleven languages. According to the Banatian Serb journalist Mihailo Polit-Desančić, the local Mocionis, including Andrei, also made a point of learning Serbian, and "sort of carried themselves like Serbs".Milin (2011), p. 383 Seen by his contemporaries as a man of outstanding culture and upbringing, Andrei had "perfect" command of Aromanian, Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian, as well as Latin, French, and German.Otiman, pp. 28–29. See also Bugariu, p. 399 Like his father, he took a law degree in 1828Tiron, p. 28 or 1832, from the Royal University of Pest.Berényi, p. 87; Bugariu, p. 399; Deheleanu, p. 219; Otiman, p. 28 He then worked in the local administration of Banat. In 1836, he was the second-ranked notary of Torontál County, being appointed first pretor in 1843.Bugariu, p. 399; Deheleanu, p. 219; Tiron, p. 28 Ethnologist Elena Rodica Colta dates the Mocionis' definitive self-identification as Romanians to this period, noting that they believed the entire Aromanian ethnos to be a branch of the Romanian community.Colta, p. 71 During his time in Pest, Andrei began frequenting the literary salon organized by Atanasiu Grabovski de Apadia in Terézváros, meeting with exponents of Aromanian and Romanian causes.Berényi, pp. 26–27, 118, 145, 189
While participating in Torontál's congregatio generalis, Andrei Mocioni sat with the "conservative-progressive" side of the Romanian caucus, taking his distance from the revolutionary liberals.Bugariu, p. 399; Deheleanu, pp. 219–220 Thanks in part to his contribution, Torontál remained a safe seat for the conservative club of István Széchenyi, committed to "moderate progress" for the country at large, with "national conservation" for the Romanians. In 1847, he managed to obtain a seat in the Diet of Hungary, for his brother Petru, canvassing votes from conservative Hungarians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Armenians and Swabians.Bugariu, p. 399
1848 revolution and Banat leadership The same period saw him dragged into the Austrian and Hungarian Revolutions. Like many Romanians, Mocioni supported the former's liberal reforms, and remained loyal to Franz Joseph I, opposing the rise of Hungarian nationalism. This pitted him against the pro-Hungarian revolutionary Eftimie Murgu, who enlisted the loyalties of various other Banatians.Deheleanu, p. 220 The Hungarian State reacted by confiscating Mocioni's property and forcing him into exile.Bugariu, p. 399; Deheleanu, p. 220; Tiron, p. 29 By September 1849, he was in Vienna, where he acted as a Romanian representative, alongside Ioan Dobran and Vincențiu Babeș.Lițiu, p. 33 Petru Mocioni was also active there as a "man of trust" of the Banatian Romanians,Mureșan & Suciu, p. 107 presenting Franz Stadion with a set of political proposals on their behalf.Ciorănescu, p. 218
Following the surrender at Világos and the resumption of Austrian control, Mocioni's loyalty was rewarded, and he was appointed supreme commissioner for the Banat, within the new Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar.Bugariu, p. 399; Ciorănescu, p. 218; Deheleanu, p. 220; Mureșan & Suciu, p. 107; Tiron, pp. 29–30 As such, he governed directly over some 600,000 people. However, he disliked this arrangement, and, in December 1849, petitioned Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg to obtain the secession of Banat as an autonomous, Romanian, province.Tiron, p. 30 During his mandate, the administration was staffed with a growing number of Romanians. In tandem, his Mocioni relatives approached the Romanians of Transylvania, also loyalists, and together with them began pressing for a Romanian dukedom to be created out of Romanian territories in Hungary.Ciorănescu, p. 44; Milin (2011), p. 398. See also Berényi, pp. 200–201; Mureșan & Suciu, p. 107 The commissioner was also involved in such projects, proposing that a Romanian press be set up in Arad, located on the Banat's traditional border with Transylvania and Partium.Lițiu, pp. 37–38 By 1850, Mocioni was also campaigning to reestablish a Transylvanian (Romanian) Orthodox Metropolis, fully separated from the Patriarchate of Karlovci. The cause had first been embraced by Petru in the 1840s.
In 1852, Mocioni ultimately resigned as commissioner, expressing his protest toward the treatment of Romanians by the Austrian government.Deheleanu, p. 220; Tiron, p. 30 However, he was asked to reconsider by the authorities, who feared that they were becoming unpopular with the majority population. Although he did not resume his earlier posting, he went on to serve as president of the Central Commission in Temeschwar (Timișoara); he was also a counsel for the Austrian Court of Cassation.Tiron, p. 30. See also Deheleanu, p. 220 He resigned all positions in the state apparatus in 1856, and withdrew to Foeni. This decision was cemented in 1858 by the death of brother Petru, killed by his own landlord or doorman in Pest.Bugariu, p. 399; Deheleanu, pp. 219, 220, 221; Tiron, p. 30 The killing, which some authors see as a political assassination, ended with a celebrity trial in which Emanoil Gojdu represented the Mocionis as plaintiffs.Neș, p. 20