| Type: | Bishop |
| Honorific Prefix: | Blessed |
| Ioan Bălan | |
| Bishop of Lugoj | |
| Church: | Romanian Greek Catholic Church |
| Diocese: | Lugoj |
| See: | Lugoj |
| Appointed: | 29 August 1936 |
| Term End: | 4 August 1959 |
| Predecessor: | Alexandru Nicolescu |
| Successor: | Ioan Ploscaru |
| Ordination: | 7 July 1903 |
| Ordained By: | Victor Mihaly de Apșa |
| Consecration: | 18 October 1936 |
| Consecrated By: | Alexandru Nicolescu |
| Birth Name: | Ioan Bălan |
| Birth Date: | 11 February 1880 |
| Birth Place: | Tövis, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (Now Teiuș, Romania) |
| Death Place: | Bucharest, People's Republic of Romania |
| Buried: | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Alma Mater: | University of Vienna |
| Feast Day: | 2 June |
| Attributes: | Episcopal attire |
| Beatified Date: | 2 June 2019 |
| Beatified Place: | Câmpia Libertății, Blaj, Romania |
Ioan Bălan (11 February 1880 – 4 August 1959) was a Romanian bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church. He is venerated as a Blessed in the Roman Catholic Church.
He was born in Teiuș, Alba County, the son of Ștefan Bălan and Ana, née Muntean. After graduating high school in Blaj, he studied theology in Budapest, and was ordained a priest in 1903. He continued his studies in Vienna, moved to Blaj and then in 1909 to Bucharest, where a Greek-Catholic confessor was needed. In 1919 he returned to Blaj, becoming canon and in 1921 rector of the theological academy. In 1936, after Alexandru Nicolescu became Metropolitan of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia, he was consecrated Bishop of Lugoj.
In 1948, the new Communist regime outlawed his church and he was arrested in October after refusing to convert to Romanian Orthodoxy. He was taken first to Dragoslavele Monastery, then to in early 1949 and to Sighet Prison in mid-1950. In 1955, he was forced to live at Curtea de Argeș Monastery. The following year he was taken to, a nunnery in Ciorogârla. He remained there in isolation until he became gravely ill and was taken to a Bucharest hospital, where he died. He was buried at the Bellu Catholic cemetery. Bălan was never tried or sentenced.[1]
Bălan and six other prelates who were held as political prisoners during Romania's Communist rule were beatified personally by Pope Francis at Liberty Field in Blaj, Romania on 2 June 2019.[2] [3]