A martyr from Banat: Father Ioja Sinesie

Ioja Sinesie was born on 23 April 1916 in the family of the priest Romul Ioja from Neagra, Arad County. He attended primary school in his hometown, then secondary school in Brad, Hunedoara County, graduating in 1933. He then attended the Arad Theological Academy, graduating in 1942. After his marriage to Eugenia Fruja, with whom he had two children, he was ordained deacon in the same year, and on 6 November he was ordained priest in the parish of Valea Mare, Arad County. After the death of his father, Father Sinesie Ioja, he succeeded him in the parish church of Ranusa County.

Arrested for aiding the partisans

On 5 January 1949, Ioja Sinesie was arrested by the Arad Securitate. He was subjected to an extremely harsh interrogation, and it was not until 10 October 1949 that the investigators managed to extract a “serious” statement from him. According to the testimony of the Securitate, in January 1945, in the house of the priest Gornic in Buteni, Father Sinesie Ioja had contacted Gligor Cantemir, a schoolmate who had been parachuted from Germany by the legionnaires to prepare the anti-Communist armed resistance in Banat. In order to help Cantemir, Father Ioja hosted him in his house between December 1944 and March 1945. Apart from Cantemir’s group, Father Ioja also sheltered the “fugitive” Brad Vasile between September 1948 and January 1949. The latter was arrested together with Father Ioja in January 1949.

From Cantemir, Father Ioja received, according to his testimony, “the order to organise the Deznei Valley, as it is written in the aforementioned statement, for which purpose I went to the communes of Slatina, Neagra, Nadalbesti and others, such as Susani, where I activated the priest Coras Florian. I gave organisational instructions to those whom I had activated, so that they in turn could frame others, the operation having to be carried out in the spic system, i.e. not knowing many of each other, in order to avoid possible deconspiration”. In addition to the system of relationships he had set up, Father Ioja helped the anti-communist fighters with money, food and information[1].

For his participation in a “subversive organisation with the aim of overthrowing the present social order in the RPR”, Father Ioja was placed in a group of 25 prisoners and sent to court on 28 October 1949 by Colonel Ambrus Coloman, head of the Timiș Securitate, with a proposal for trial and sentencing. He was considered the leader of the group because, according to the Securitate, he had organised the subversive group[2].

The trial took place before the Military Court of Timișoara, from 6 to 22 December 1949, and Father Ioja was accused of violating Article 209, p. III, of the Penal Code, in conjunction with Royal High Decree no. 856/1938, without any witnesses[3]. Under cross-examination, Father Ioja emphatically stated that he was not a member of the Legionaries, as he had been accused of being in the Securitate investigation, that he had given shelter to Gligor Cantemir because he had nowhere to go and because they had been schoolmates, that he had no clear knowledge of the latter’s missions, except in part when he had been asked to make contact with various Legionaries in the area. He claimed that he did not have the precise mission of reorganising the Legionary movement or any anti-state organisation[4].

Sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment

On 22 December 1949, by decree no. 1800, the Military Tribunal of Timișoara condemned Father Sinesie Ioja to 12 years of hard labour, 10 years of deprivation of civil rights and confiscation of property, the highest sentence imposed in this trial[5].

During his imprisonment, Father Ioja was investigated and passed through the Securitate detention centres of Arad and Timisoara, the military prison. On 25 September 1950, Father Ioja was taken from the Aiud prison and interned in the Baia Sprie labour colony. On 11 February 1951, suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, cough and sputum, he was admitted to the prison hospital at Tg Ocna. On 26 June 1957, he was transferred from Jilava to Tg. Ocna, “completely isolated from the rest of the C.R. prisoners and legionnaires”, and was ordered to be kept in the “legionnaire’s section”, according to an address from the Prison Directorate to the Jilava prison. In January 1957, during a medical examination, he was diagnosed with “fibro-causal pulmonary tuberculosis” and “intestinal peritoneal tuberculosis”. As a result, on 7 October 1957, he was transferred to Văcărești Prison in Bucharest. On 4 November 1957, he was transferred from Vacaresti Prison to the State Hospital no. 9 in Bucharest for “medical expertise”[6].

The hunger strike

Due to his poor health, in Tg. Ocna, on 17 July 1955, Father Ioja declared a hunger strike because of 1) “lack of air in the room because the windows are fixed at an opening of 30 cm; 2) walking and toilet schedule we do it in one hour, so I need air to heal; 3) lack of vegetables in the food, such as tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots”, according to the statement to the prison administration. On 20 July, he will end the hunger strike “without anyone supervising him”, according to a statement written by someone other than his father and signed by him with a barely legible signature, probably as a result of torture[7].

During his forced labour in Baia Sprie, between 24 September 1950 and 6 February 1951, Father Ioja worked for 12 days, “with an average of 100%”, on the surface “in various jobs”, except in January, when he was employed in the mine[8].

Also in Tg Ocna prison, Father was punished, first on 30 June 1953, for “demonstrating hostility to the regime and indiscipline in the prison”, with 5 days in solitary confinement, and on 19 October 1955, for “not wanting to shave”, “not allowed to speak for 6 months”. This last “misbehaviour” was justified by his father in a holographic statement: “I had a large beard and was asked by the Commandant to shave it, but I refused for reasons of health and because I am a priest”[9].

During this period, Father Ioja received several things from the family, food and letters. In June 1956, while in Tg. Ocna, he received a letter from his wife: “Honey 1500 gr., cheese 1300 gr., meat 500 gr., sugar 500 gr., jam 500 gr., ham 300 gr., onions 200 gr., 1 shirt”. On 23 February 1956, when he was in Tg. Ocna, from which we quote: “Dear Sinesie, It’s been a long time since I wrote, but we have to make do with one letter a year. I was very upset because the parcels of thick clothes came twice and the one of food was almost spoilt. Now they are sending you warm clothes and food, but they won’t put the glasses on until next month because they have to make them according to the number you sent. The children are well and grown up, but mum and dad have lost weight and are very old. [Now I kiss you with love and longing, your Zina. I also kiss Corina’s hands. I also kiss your hands, Marin. I’ll come to see you in July, because now it’s cold and snowy”[10].

Killed in prison

We have the testimony of Anastasie Berzescu, who met Father Ioja in January-February 1950 in the prison of Timișoara, when he was transferred to the prison of Aiud: “One day, in the middle of the night, the door of the room opened noisily and we were told to take our luggage and get out. […] One after the other, we were led to the hill where we were chained. Not everyone was chained. Only those who were considered more dangerous and the leaders of the groups. I was chained together with Father Ioja Sinesie, from the commune of Ranusa, Arad County. He was a kind and good man, with much love for people and much faith in God. We are both in heavy chains. The handcuffs were thick and wide, cold as winter. Father Ioja Sinesie was bound on his left leg. We had to be very careful and step at the same time, otherwise we would trip or pull each other. That’s how we spent our days, in heavy chains and shackles. That’s how we slept, that’s how we went to the toilet together. We looked at each other with resignation and hope that one day we would escape. Father Sinesie’s kind eyes encouraged me. He was older than me.”[11]

About Father Ioja’s behaviour in the hospital-penitentiary in Tg. Ocna, an authentic “oasis of spirituality in a desert of suffering”, tells us about the behaviour of Father Constantin Voicescu, one of the survivors of the tuberculosis prayers in the Romanian gulag. He tells us that on many occasions Father Ioja Sinesie, together with Gherasim Iscu, Viorel Todea and Varlaam Lica, “religiously assisted” the suffering brothers “through various services, especially through the mystery of confession […] and above all through Holy Communion, brought from outside by the care of God”. Most of those who died received Holy Communion. All this was done in secret, hidden from the eyes of the administration and the ears of the informers. A catacomb atmosphere! This made us even more hardened in spirit”[12].

On 2 and 3 August 1958, Father Ioja Sinesie died in Văcărești prison[13]. According to the death certificate signed by Popescu Ion, “the official doctor of Văcărești hospital”, the cause of death was “severe cranio-encephalitic contusion, base fracture”[14].

Other information about Fr. Ioja comes from Pastor Richard Würmbrand, who remembers him from his time in Tg. Ocna, from another political prisoner: “A poor Orthodox priest, Ioja, had thrown himself from the top bunk and broken his skull. He repeated this gesture several times until he succeeded in killing himself. He had been tortured. He feared that if the re-educators tortured him again, he would break down and deny his faith. He was a very rigid man, a prisoner confessed to him that he had once worked for the communists, and Father Ioja forbade him to take communion for fifteen years”[15].

From the above quotation we can see that Father Ioja would have tried to commit suicide in order not to lose his faith, which is also the case with some saints. However, Würmbrand’s words can be questioned if we take into account the fact that he tells about events he did not witness, which took place in Gherla and Pitesti, in the period before his presence in Tg. Ocna, i.e. between 1950 and 1951. Father Ioja’s death occurred in 1958, in Văcărești, after Würmbrand had been in this hospital-penitentiary and had even been released in the spring of 1956. In any case, Würmbrand’s information comes from another prisoner, which leads us to question his account.

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Rost Magazine, issue 46 of December 2006)

[1] AMJDIM, Criminal file, file 7375, vol. 2, f. 140, 161-164; ACNSAS, Criminal file, file 689, vol. 1, f. 19-20.

[2] ACNSAS, Criminal Case File 689, vol. 1, f. 133. The group also included a priest named Dumitru Morar, who had no connection with Father Ioja, born 19 October 1913, graduated in theology, military confessor, parish priest at Seitin, jud. The lot “led” by Father Ioja was the second of the “subversive legionary organisation” in Arad county set up by the Securitate (Ibidem, f. 101).

[3] ACNSAS, Criminal fonds, file 689, vol. 1, f. 152.

[4] Ibidem, f. 194-196v.

[5] Ibidem, f. 255.

[6] Ibidem, vol. 2, f. 89, 90, 91, 92, 98.

[7] Ibid, f. 109-110.

[8] Ibidem, f. 104.

[9] Ibidem, f. 108, 120v.

[10] Ibidem, f. 83, 102. If the postcard from which I have quoted is in the prison file, it probably never reached the addressee. The father received food from his family on 9 September 1955 (Ibidem, f. 107).

[11] Anastasie Berzescu, Tears and Blood. Armed anticommunist resistance in the Banat mountains, Timișoara, Marineasa Publishing House, 1999, p. 125-126. He also claims that Father Ioja died of tuberculosis in Tg Ocna, which is erroneous (Ibidem, p. 356).

[12] Constantin Voicescu, Religious life in the Târgu Ocna prison (1950-1954), in “Memory as a form of justice. Communications presented at the Sighetu Marmației Seminar (10-12 June 1994)”, 1994, p. 187.

[13] ACNSAS, Criminal fonds, file 689, vol. 2, f. 78, 80.

[14] Ibidem, f. 81. The document bears the stamp of Văcărești penitentiary, but has no registration number. In “Memoria”, no. 8, p. 138, it is erroneously stated that he died at Văcărești in 1956, information probably taken from Cicerone Ionițoiu, from the Golden Book of the Romanian Resistance against Communism, Hrisovul, 1995, p. 74, 332. The same is found in The Imprisoned Church. Romania 1944-1989, INST, 1999, p. 213, and in Vasile Manea, Orthodox Priests in Communist Prisons, Patmos, 2001, p. 132, it is claimed that he died in Tg. Ocna. In the latter work it seems that the information was taken from Mihai Rădulescu, The Burning Bush. Duhovnicii Ortodoxiei sub lespezi în gherlele comuniste, București, Editura Ramida, 1993, p. 237, in which it is claimed that Father died in Tg Ocna, between 1950-1953, according to a list in the volume Din documentele rezistenţei, nr. 3, no. 3, which contains oral testimonies of former political prisoners.

[15] Richard Wurmbrand, With God in the Underground, trans. M. Alexandrescu-Munteanu and M. Chilian, Casa Școalelor Publishing House, Bucharest, 1993, p. 105. The same is found in The Imprisoned Church…, p. 213, and in Orthodox Priests…, p. 132, it is claimed that he died in Tg. Ocna, as in The Burning Bush…, p. 237.