 Born in Câmpeni, Transylvania (in Austria-Hungary at the time), he was the son of schoolteacher Dionisie Trifa, and the nephew of Iosif Trifa, an Orthodox priest who founded "Oastea Domnului" ("The Lord's Army").He studied at the school of his native village, then at the Horia Gymnasium of Câmpeni and the Gheorghe Lazăr High School of Sibiu, from which he graduated in 1931.Between 1931 and 1935, he studied theology at the University of Chişinău, graduating "magna cum laude".