Ioan Bălan was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop who lived from 1880 to 1959. Born in Teiuș, he pursued theological studies in Budapest and Vienna before being ordained a priest in 1903. Throughout his ecclesiastical career, he served in various capacities, including as a rector in Blaj and eventually as the Bishop of Lugoj. His life was marked by significant hardship following the rise of the Communist regime, which led to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment for refusing to abandon his faith.