A miracle of Father Daniil in prison
Father Augustin de la Aiud gives us an important testimony about the sanctity of St. Daniel the Confessor:
“Father Daniil was put one winter in a cell called Alba, or the refrigerator, as it was called, at a temperature of -30º Celsius. It was a cell without windows, with faeces and wool everywhere, because those who were to die were put there – they were practically condemned to die of cold. They were dressed very scantily and they were left there with very little food, both before they went into the cell and after they went into the cell.
And Father was put in with a doctor, a very good friend of his.
After they were both put in the cell by 3 guards, Fr. Daniil immediately threw himself on his stomach, with his hands outstretched in the sign of the Holy Cross, with his face in all the dirt there, and said to the doctor: “Lie on me! Lie down on me! The doctor sat down with his back to him in the same position of the Holy Cross, and after he had sat down, he said to him: Doctor, don’t say anything else but: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And the doctor said that when Fr. Daniil began to pray, a dazzling light entered the whole cell, and from that moment on he lost track of time.
After some time, the guards came to the cell and lifted them up from the floor, and then they found out that they had been there for 8 days, without water, without food, without sleep, without anything to wear, at -30° Celsius. When the torturers went in and laid their hands on Fr. Daniil, it was hotter than when they had brought him into the cell, and everything around him had melted”.
(Testimony of Fr. Augustin in the TV programme Semne – “Why don’t we canonise the anti-communist martyrs?”, directed by Rafael Udriște and broadcast by TVR on 11 October 2008)