Felea was born in Valea Bradului, a village that today is incorporated into
Brad city in
Hunedoara County. His father was a priest. From 1910 to 1914, he attended primary school in his native village, followed from 1914 to 1920 by
Avram Iancu High School in Brad. From 1920 to 1922, by which time his native
Transylvania has
united with Romania, he attended
Moise Nicoară National College in
Arad, taking his degree there. Felea studied at the theological academy in
Sibiu from 1922 to 1926, earning his diploma at the end. From 1926 to 1927, he was a substitute teacher at Avram Iancu in Brad. In July 1927, he was ordained a priest for the
Sibiu Archdiocese, and was soon assigned to the parish in his native village. He continued there for three years, when he entered the
Arad Diocese and was assigned a parish in the city's Șega neighborhood. From 1927 to 1929, he attended the literature and philosophy faculty at the
University of Cluj, from which he graduated. Felea remained at Șega for nine years, in charge of the church and small parish house; the parishioners were mainly workers at nearby factories. He edited
Biserica și Școala magazine from 1939 to 1945, and was also in charge of
Calea mântuirii, a bulletin for parishioners, from 1943 to 1945. In both these journals, he wrote a number of articles on theology and church life, as well as book reviews. Felea's sermons, invariably well prepared and relevant, attracted a number of intellectuals, with whom he developed close relations. On January 6, 1949, after finishing the blessing of homes for the
Theophany, he was again arrested, this time under a full-fledged
communist regime. He was taken to a crowded basement for questioning and sometimes held alone in a cell for political prisoners on an upper floor. Transferred to the
Timișoara penitentiary, he was tried in October 1949 and sentenced to a year's imprisonment for "failure to denounce". He also passed through
Aiud prison, from which he was released in January 1950. and the Arad theological faculty was named in his honor following the
Romanian Revolution. == Veneration ==