Gheorghe Sion


Gheorghe Sion was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, playwright, translator and memoirist.
He was born in Mamornița to paharnic Ioniță Sion and his wife Eufrosina, the daughter of Filiki Eteria member Gheorghe Schina. His uncles included Constantin Sion, author of a semi-fictitious noble genealogy ; and spătar Antohi Sion, the rumored author of Izvodul lui Clănău, an outright forgery. After spending two years at Saint Sava College in Bucharest, the capital of Wallachia, he returned to his native Moldavia. Entering the Iași-based provincial administration, he became a copyist at the Justice Department in 1842, followed by work as a clerk at the Interior Department. He became a wanted man for his participation in the 1848 revolution, and so fled to Austrian-ruled Transylvania. He returned to Iași in 1849, working as bureau chief at the Department of Church Property and Public Education. From 1855, he worked at the State Archives.
Subsequently, around the time of the Union of the Principalities, Sion moved to Bucharest, where his posts included membership in the Appeals Court and, from 1866, head of the Tobacco Monopoly Company. In 1868, he was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy. In Bucharest, he founded Revista Carpaților in 1860 and, together with V. A. Urechia, published Transacțiuni literare și științifice starting in 1872. His volumes included poetry, plays, a travel book, and memoirs.