His family originated from
Diciosânmartin. His father, George Maior, was a protopop in
Marosvásárhely, and then in
Căpușul de Câmpie. He studied at Seminary of
Blaj and became a monk, taking the name Paul, at 14 years. Along with
Samuil Micu-Klein and Ioachim Pop he received a scholarship at
Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide where he studied philosophy and theology for five years, between 1774 and 1779. He completed his education in Vienna, learning about the
canon law of the Catholic Church. Petru Maior took a stand and responded, in 1812, by writing the
Istoria pentru începutul românilor în Dachia against all those who questioned the origin, character, and the becoming of his people. He was a prolific writer, who published everything he wrote during his lifetime except for two theological works: "
Procanon" (1783) and "
Protopopadichia" (The power of the archpriests) (1795). The ''
, a book published in 1825, included two texts by Petru Maior, Orthographia romana sive latino-valachica una cum clavi
and Dialogu pentru inceputul linbei române'', in which he introduced the letters ș for and ț for , which have since been in use in the
Romanian alphabet. Among the ideas vehiculated by him was that before the
Council of Florence Romanians used the Latin alphabet to write and that
Romanian language evolved from Vulgar Latin, being, in his words, "a predecessor of the Latin language of the books". ==Selected works==