Alexandru Mironescu (en)

A knight of the ineffable: writer and university professor Alexandru Mironescu

The reader is often driven by an irresistible curiosity to know the life and character of the writer whose literary work has captivated him. More often than not, however, they are disappointed by the discrepancy between the noble power of the writings and the moral profile of the author. In his famous book The Intellectuals, Paul Johnson masterfully used his acerbic tone to expose such cases (Rousseau, Tolstoy, Sartre, Hemingway, Brecht). The reader’s satisfaction is all the greater when he discovers that the creative man is in perfect harmony with his act of creation, continuing and intertwining with it. Such […]

“On his face with its soft cheeks shone a lively and gentle look”

When I first entered the apartment in Galați Street where Ileana Mironescu lived, I was surprised by two things I could see in the living room from the entrance hall: a portrait and the furniture. The portrait was hanging in the living room, on the wall opposite the entrance door to the flat. It received daylight through the entrance hall, but also daylight from the electric lamp. It was well lit and gave me the impression that the person in the painting was looking at me intently and sternly. It was a portrait of a slightly balding, bespectacled older man […]

“He was a friend unlike anyone I had ever known”

In 1959, when I married Spiru Vergulescu – he, a student at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, and I, a student at the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Music Conservatory – I met Ileana Mironescu and Maria Mironescu, the daughter and wife of Alexandru Codin Mironescu, respectively. I met Alexandru Mironescu and his son Șerban much later, when they were released from prison. I don’t remember whether our first meeting with Alexandru Mironescu was before or after the Christmas holidays of 1963, and whether it took place in our house on Palace Square or in his house on Vasile Lascăr Street. […]

Mr. Alexandru-Codin Mironescu as we remember him

More than forty years ago, by chance and with the help of a friend, I met Ileana Mironescu, a pianist who, after a concert at the A.R.L.U.S. Hall, invited us to Vasile Lascăr Street, where she lived with her family. There we met her parents, Mr. Alexandru-Codin Mironescu, Mrs. Maria (Mimi) Mironescu and her brother Șerban. That evening, I was happy to see that the universe I had entered, for which it was difficult to find words to describe, was fascinating. They were not alone, and everyone there seemed to form a cenacle, and the discussion had a pronounced mystical […]

Alexandru Codin Mironescu – a Martyr of the Nation

I met Codin Mironescu in 1966 in the church “Schitul Maicilor”, near the monastery of Antim. He used to recite the Creed during the celebration of Sundays and feasts. I learnt from the faithful that he was part of a group of Orthodox Christians called “The Burning Bush”, arrested and sentenced in 1958, and pardoned in 1964, along with 20 other believers and his son Serban, aged 16. After the anointing, as I left the church, I addressed Mr. Codin Mironescu directly to express my gratitude, as a fellow believer, for his attempt to oppose the communism that handcuffed us, […]

The case of Alexandru Mironescu – the meeting of the scientific spirit, the artistic spirit and the religious spirit

Although not as famous as the discoverer of insulin, Professor Alexandru “Codin” Mironescu remains a landmark in the philosophy of science in Romania, as well as in the possible good encounter between the scientific spirit, the artistic spirit and the religious spirit. A scientist and writer, a prominent figure in the spiritual group of the “Burning Bush” at the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, a man of culture but also of discreet and deep spirituality, he combined research with faith and writing with prayer, establishing himself since the interwar period as both a theorist of scientific knowledge and a novelist. Father […]

Alexandru Mironescu – a great, patient and deeply faithful soul

After about a month’s stay, I was taken with my luggage to the gate[1]. Here I was led into a hall where there were more than a hundred people with their luggage, none of whom I knew. I looked closely at each of them, hoping to find someone I knew, but in vain. (…) – Lord, my God, I believe in You, don’t leave me alone, be with me and bring peace to my life! I asked this and I was heard. Out of the crowd that was in that hall, God put a special man, the desired man, on […]

Alexandru Mironescu – an admirable figure

A complex, honest and generous man. An admirable figure. Although he had a scientific background, he was a poet, novelist, theatre critic, essayist, publicist and memoirist. He began as an atheist of the French school and ended as an Orthodox mystic. He made socialist politics, but he saw a moral-Christian socialism and so was a white crow among socialists. He participated intensively in the Burning Bush movement, for which he was also condemned. He spent five years in prison as a swordsman. His philokalic poems, still unpublished, will occupy a special place in literature. After his release, he remained uncompromised. […]

Professor Alexandru Mironescu, the man who had the “genius of friendship”

Next to Sandu Tudor – inseparable from him in presence and image, though distinct in his own personality – Alexandru Codin Mironescu must immediately be mentioned. For many of those close to Antim monastery, this university professor of chemistry-physics, writer, well-known journalist and literary critic, but above all “himself”, brought the gift of a clear, modest maturity: in constant exchange with others, the younger ones in a privileged way. If we were to say that he had the “genius of friendship” – and not only that – we would not be exaggerating the feeling confirmed at every meeting. Of course, […]

Alexandru Mironescu, a true defender of Christ

It is a great joy and a spiritual uplifting to remember the great heroes, with burning hearts, heroes of the Cross, heroes of the Resurrection. Alexandru Mironescu, with an endless and motivated smile, a strong and immovable pillar, with a sword of fire, a true defender of Christ. As long as we could stay together, I felt encouraged, used, strengthened – we loved each other. He knew and could keep his heart warm and preached softly but powerfully. He felt a whole white eternity lit up in an instant. I hold him in infinite esteem and love on the altar […]

Alexandru Mironescu – a strong confessor of our faith

The scientist, the fascinating professor, the thinker with a wide horizon of culture, of refinement, of information, the consecrated writer that Alexandru Mironescu was, was also a profound believer, a practising believer and a strong and always substantial confessor of our faith. And it was a paradox of his life that this eternal thinker, so independent, so new and unpredictable, always wanted to know the most accurate, the most authentic, the most rigorous positions of faith in matters of faith. Alexandru Mironescu loved the authentic faith, knew it, lived it and confessed it without any arrogance, on the contrary, “with […]

“The face of Professor Mironescu has remained with me as a harmonious achievement of a Romanian intellectual”

When I lived in the monastic oblast of St. Antim Monastery – Bucharest between 1942 and 1950, I met Prof. Al. Mironescu, in the spiritual movement of the “Burning Bush” of this monastery. He often attended the Holy Masses of the monastery with his wife Maria and their two children Șerban and Ileana, and actively participated in the spiritual conversations with friends and monks of the monastery. We admired his resolute, clear and precise language. But the professor also continued the spiritual conversations in the intimate family environment, together with friends and parents who had improved themselves in the holy […]