Apostle under communism: Father Nicodim Măndiță
Fr. Nicodim Măndiță is one of the people who considerably broadened the concept of the “elite”. For “thin” intellectuals, the work of Fr. Nicodim is quite difficult to digest, being considered by some as too simplistic, even childish. But few of his critics have been able to bring so many souls to the path of faith, whom he urged to do something that, unfortunately, too few Orthodox believers do: to read seriously the books of Christian doctrine in order to know, cultivate and defend the true faith.
Father Măndiță’s biography is fairly well known, thanks to the efforts of his faithful disciples or admirers, who have patiently collected every page of the great confessor’s life, while continuing his missionary work. We shall mention only Gheorghe Ionescu’s two-volume book, simply entitled The Life of Father Nicodim Măndiță and the Studies of Nicolae Rădulescu. We will be content to present only some of the essential elements of a life full of spiritual achievements, insisting on two questions of the greatest importance: his model of spirituality, the role of the printed word in it and, related to this question, the significance of the priest’s arrest and condemnation.
Military man that became a monk
Nicolae Măndiță was born on 28 October 1889 in the village of Bunești, in the county of Argeș. Although he did not complete more than five primary classes, the young Nicolae showed an early talent for reading, sharing what he read with the people of the village.
In 1911 he enlisted in the army, where he served until 1918. He took an active part in the 1913 campaign in Bulgaria and in the fighting during the First World War. Although he was highly esteemed, after the end of the war he chose the path of monasticism, becoming a monk in 1920 in the monastery of Măgura, Bacău County, with the name of Nicodim. Thanks to his piety and his special spiritual formation, he soon received the grace of the priesthood. In this capacity, he was sent to serve the world in places such as Vâlcele and Schitu – Frumoasa, Bacău County, Pâclișa, Alba County, Hășmașul Ciceului, Leurda Gârboului and Șimișna, Cluj County.
He served with great zeal in these parishes for 13 years, returning only for a short time to the monastery of Giurgeni, Neamț County. Father Nicodemus humbly obeyed the bishop’s orders, left the seclusion of the monastery and had the courage to go out into the world to spread the Word of God. Gheorghe Ionescu shows us how, far from going out into the world, Father Nicodemus always managed to lead people to the path of faith and to live rigorously according to Christian principles. What he preached was not spectacular, but simple, normative elements, understood by many, which marked out the way to a truly Christian life. Seemingly external elements, such as the prohibition of alcohol or the “wedding without Lăutari”, actually marked the acceptance of a qualitatively superior existence. And in all these cases, the decisive factor was the personal example of the father, who never deviated from the precepts of the true faith and was extremely demanding in this respect.
Father Nicodemus was one of the strongest promoters of Orthodoxy, defending his flock and trying to bring back to its bosom those who had gone over to other faiths, but even in this area he was an exemplary model, using exclusively the dialogical argument without resorting to coercive measures. The numerous and passionate theological disputes that took place in Romanian villages during the inter-war period convinced him, when necessary, of the need for a thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the teachings of the Orthodox Church, not only by priests but also by the faithful. As Gheorghe Ionescu says: “From the very beginning, Father Ionescu realised that if Christians did not read books useful for the soul, it would not be possible to transform them from old people into new people. It is not enough to have sermons, Liturgies, holy sacraments and the example of a good life, but it is absolutely necessary to offer people holy books to read, which is the food of the Christian soul, according to the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says in His holy Gospel: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'” (p. 82).
On the language of the simple man
Father Nicodemus led a modest life, because with the money he received from the faithful, which was not a small amount, he bought books and gave them to anyone who wanted to read them. He sought out those “books useful to the soul” in which the Word of God was made clear to simple believers, rediscovering the medieval tradition of the “popular books” in which Christian doctrine was conveyed through dogmatic and moral parables. He also began to write himself, and his list of works is truly impressive. As the son of a peasant, living with peasants, he understood their mental mechanism very well, and all his works take this into account.
These aspects have also led to controversy about the dogmatic correctness of his works, especially regarding the famous Aerial Toll Houses. However, this theme is very common in popular traditions and elsewhere as a way of depicting man’s spiritual evolution. Certain exaggerations have been made in this respect, especially by some disciples, who absolutise some of the teachings of the Father whom they venerate, forgetting the rest of the Church. This is not surprising, because throughout the history of Christianity there have been people who have been willing to venerate a monk, a saint, etc., because it is “closer”, more concrete, forgetting the Head of the Church, who is Christ.
As far as Father Nicodim is concerned, even if some of his ideas may be questionable, he was always on the line of Orthodox moral teaching and practice, which he cultivated with a rigour that some found excessive. He knew how to keep his head on his shoulders, avoiding becoming a priest-healer (as unfortunately there are still many today, especially in the villages of Moldova), urging people to go to the doctor for health problems, even though tradition records numerous acts of healing performed through the priest’s prayers. More than the criticism, we should give priority to the merits of the priest who, through his work, helped to dispel many “heresies” that were full of popular spirituality, by his exhortations for people to study.
In this respect, he became almost unique in that he gave as a canon to penitents in confession the reading of holy books. A story written by Gheorghe Ionescu shows us the importance the Father attached to reading, but it also illustrates the type of people with whom he most often came into contact and with whom he had to speak in their understanding: “Father Nicodemus was at Liturgy in the Holy Church of the Transfiguration. A woman tugged at my coat. She beckoned me to come out of the holy church for a moment to say something. In the vestibule, she told me to ask the priest to confess her because she came from afar. I went to the wardrobe door and asked the nun to tell the priest. When she found out what was wrong, she told me to send for the woman immediately. When he gave her the canon, she argued that she doesn’t know how to read and told the priest that she would make any other canon, apart from that one. Then the father asked her:
– But can you wash clothes without water? Just as you cannot wash your clothes without water, so the Christian cannot cleanse himself from the filth of sin without the living water that is the Word of God.
She tried to say that if she knew how to read, she would like to complete the canon, but how? The priest said to her again:
– If you want, you can read by ear. You let someone else read and you listen. Don’t you see that everyone has a house to live in, but not everyone knows how to build it? One will get someone else to do it and pay him. All people have clothes, but they are not tailors, they go and pay the tailor to make them. They all have shoes on their feet, they all have stoves to heat their rooms, but they are not all shoemakers or stove-makers, but they pay those who know how to make them, and they make them. And so you, if you don’t know the book, pay those who know how to read, and listen carefully, and you can complete your canon if you want to do it. As we have known how to sin, sometimes spending large sums of money, so we must now spend to get rid of it.
Having heard this, the woman was enlightened and agreed to receive this canon, saying:
– All right, Father, I’ll pay for them to read it to me somehow, my sins alone are my own, but I think, where will I find so many books?
– If necessary, you can read a book more than once. And you will find books, don’t be afraid, but don’t wait for someone to knock on your door to bring them to you. You ask here and there in regards to them. You have heard what people did during the famine. No one sent them to Ardeal or Banat to buy flour, but they went of their own free will because they needed to feed themselves and their families. Don’t you see what women do at Easter when they need yeast to bake bread? How they search and give what they don’t make, just to find it? So will you, if you feel the need to cleanse your soul of sins, you will search right and left and you will find it without fail.
The woman also understood and said nothing more, but kissed Father’s hand and went away” (pp. 434 – 435).
The stories told in the above lines took place after 1944. At that time, the communist regime in Romania was becoming more firmly established and atheism was being encouraged to replace Christianity. In 1948, drastic measures were taken to restrict church bookselling and the titles offered for sale, and all books with “mystical” content were eliminated. Whereas previously bishops had been able to grant private individuals permission to sell religious books and objects, after 1948 the purchase of church items could only take place within churches, while no ‘secular’ publishing house could print religious books.
The religious “samizdat” network
Since 1933, Father Măndiță had returned to the monastic area, living either at Văratec Monastery or at Agapia. He had not forgotten the idea of spreading the written word; on the contrary, he had carried out a remarkable editorial activity and created a network of distributors. In the new historical conditions, these activities seemed doomed to cease. However, he did not accept this situation and, on the basis of old relationships, developed the largest and best organised network of religious “samizdat” that existed in communist Romania. Anyone who accuses the Orthodox Church of not trying to spread the Word of Christ during the years of communism can read in the criminal file drawn up by the Securitate for the group of “disseminators” led by Father Nicodemus that the state authorities discovered no less than 500,000 volumes in four locations in Bucharest! If we bear in mind that the group’s activity was continuous from 1948 to 1964, we can imagine the dimensions of this action and its impact on the faithful.
The nucleus consisted of a handful of people who copied Father Măndiță’s writings and many other religious books on typewriters and then printed them in their small clandestine printing house, or, remarkably, they managed to print books in “official” printing houses in various parts of the country, especially in diocesan printing houses, a sign that Church officials were not strangers to this endeavour.
In addition to the books printed in the course of time, there was also a considerable quantity of volumes printed up to 1948, which these people saved from melting, hid in various places and then distributed from town to town. It is only when you see the photographs of the “accused” standing next to the piles of books, when you see the modest means with which they produced them and in what spaces, when you learn that they then went on long journeys with their heavy suitcases of books, that you realise what an enormous amount of work these people did.
For more details of what happened, we provide the reader with excerpts from Criminal Sentence no. 38, issued to Father Nicodim Măndiță on 22 January 1965. Those accustomed to the style of these productions of the totalitarian regime will find it very easy to decipher the dimensions of the activity of the accused group, as well as the aspects pursued by the regime, so we will not recount the facts, but only provide some clarifications.
Condemned immediately after the “Great Liberation”
In 1955, some of the priest’s collaborators were arrested after they were found to be in possession of numerous religious works that were to be distributed, which the regime considered to be a serious offence. Some of them were members of the “Oastea Domnului” organisation, banned for its “mysticism”. As Father Nicodemus’ name came up in the investigations, and as he had worked closely with the Theosophists in the past, a file was opened against him in the “Lord’s Army”. Few people reported on the priest’s activities, and the Securitate was unable to establish with certainty the nature of Nicodemus Măndiță’s “evil” activities until 1964, when the network collapsed and the book deposits were discovered. Ten people were tried in Bucharest and convicted by judgement no. 10 of 9 January 1965, for distributing forbidden publications (Article 325(3)(c) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Romania). Because of his age and illness, the priest was tried separately, in Târgul Neamț, but the unity of the group was taken into account.
In January 1965, when Nicodim Măndiță was put on trial, only a few months had passed since the “great liberation” of the political prisoners in the prisons. For those who seek the merits of Communism, his trial shows that the nature of the regime had not changed in the slightest, and that the general amnesty was a purely external gesture without ideological consequences. Reading the verdict, one can see that the prosecutors tried to give credence to the idea of speculation, which has more common law connotations, although in a communist system even speculation is a politically motivated crime. As this could not be proved, the confiscated publications were read and found to contain numerous ideas dangerous to the regime, many of them written by Fr. Nicodim Măndiță. The eight-year sentence imposed on the priest is a clear political condemnation, an attack on the freedom of conscience that the regime had been using since 1964. Moreover, the priest was interned in Aiud, which had just been abandoned by those who had undergone re-education, a sign that he was considered a dangerous element. The 500,000 books were sent to be burnt, a list of which was later added to the prosecution file.
Fr. Nicodim was sentenced to one and a half years in prison, the remainder of which was suspended on the “good will” of the regime. He returned to the monastery of Agapia and ended his earthly existence on the evening of 5-6 July 1975. Even today, when his memorial service is held, thousands of faithful gather to honour the memory of a man who saved the holy books from burning and encouraged the world: “Read the word of the Lord!”
(Alex Iuga – Rost Magazine, Year V, Issue 51, May 2007, pp. 15-19)