Archimandrite Gherasim Iscu – died like an embodied angel

In the next bed, Archimandrite Gherasim gave his soul. He had come from the Canal, where he had been one of the pillars of the resistance, in a grave condition. On the evening of the Nativity, he was taken to heaven. He was unwavering in his faith. Having nothing to wear, for his clothes were wet with sweat, Valerius offered his own clothes, keeping father’s for himself.

– These are my monastic clothes! he said excitedly. Bury me in them!

***

In room 4 sat, among others, Archimandrite Gherasim Iscu, next to him a Jew and former Soviet politician, now a Zionist, and Ion, my friend from Pitești, who was very ill. On the right side of the room, in a bed, was Valeriu, my dearest brother. Ion and Father Gherasim were in a serious condition. […]

I approached Father Gherasim, who was sitting with his eyes closed. He was very thin. He had been at the Canal, where they worked sixteen hours a day, followed by four hours of administrative work. He had been assigned to the special brigade for priests, with a rapid extermination regime. In Canal, Father Gherasim encouraged his friends, helped many of them in their work and was at the service of all. He practised the prayer of the heart and had great spiritual resources that kept him strong through all the hardships.

But his informers repeatedly betrayed him because he was giving confessions and communion, and as a result he was beaten, isolated, starved and terrorised beyond all measure. Man is flesh and blood, the spirit cannot ignore the laws of life, so the ascetic, who was spiritually advanced, fell ill with tuberculosis and, almost dying, was taken to Târgu-Ocna to die “humanely”.

His presence in the sanatorium was marked by his ability to touch and comfort people’s souls. He was therefore much in demand as a confessor.

He gave himself joyfully to the inmates who asked for him, even though he was exhausted.

He also gave spiritual guidance, not only from his readings but also from his rich mystical experience. For in Room 4 in Târgu-Ocna, mysticism was not only rehabilitated as an idea and as a practical reality, but it was also alive, dense, intense, to be grasped with the hand. In fact, you didn’t even need to grasp it with your hand, because God was present there and immediately captivated you, penetrating your soul and being like a pleasant fragrance. We do not deny for a moment the mysteries celebrated on the holy altars, we only confess that grace is also intensely manifested through His saints. This is how we felt around Father Gherasim.

It was with hesitation that I approached him to see how he was. He sensed me and opened his big, dark, deep eyes:

– Have you come? I’m glad… I was far away, in places of green, of song and fragrance, of light. It’s wonderful there. There’s peace. You can’t really express what’s there. There’s so much happiness that even the joy of seeing you is a pain in the contrast between the two worlds. I’ll be leaving soon, perhaps in a clear way, on Christmas Eve. And that is a gift from God. I don’t know how to thank Him. I don’t know how to make people experience God, full of joy…

I have the certainty of eternal life, I already share it. Nor am I afraid of the Judgement, for I walk with a humble spirit and hope only in God’s mercy and grace…

The spirits of darkness now rule over men, but do not be afraid, Christ is near, He is searching the world; and the world needs much suffering… The enemies think we are defeated, but they deny God’s work in history and do not know His ways…

He paused for a moment, took a deep breath and continued:

– Here will be the pilgrimage one day… Today we are few, but there is still faith in the world, that the world will be redeemed. Now it seems impossible, but beyond human means there is a divine economy and it will revive humanity.

Be then blessed… Here I have met people before whom my heart is humbled. Tell Valeriu to pray for me… Pray too! I’m happy to have come at this hour…

He spoke softly, but with such power that I was deeply impressed. He closed his eyes again and retired to the threshold of eternal life. My conversation with Father Gherasim was also unintentionally recorded by the Jew Jacob, who was in the next bed. […]

From time to time I approached Ion and Father Gherasim, who were slowly fading away, the more alive the closer they came to death. […]

Ion was the first to fall asleep, like a baby of a man who had such a big heart. His last look was sad, sad and full of love. Maybe it was a prayer, maybe an exhortation, maybe a hope.

I had just finished with Ion when I was called to Father Gherasim.

He opened his deep-set eyes again, sunk into their sockets.

– Let me look at you again, my dears, my children, my brothers, my parents! he said softly. Then he coughed and finally added:

– I’m going! God bless you!

He took a short, deep breath, shrank a little and breathed out again. I closed his eyes. I closed the eyes of hundreds of people and knew better how they died than how they lived. Perhaps the moment of the end is more characteristic for portraying people than life itself.

***

Archimandrite Gherasim was a pillar of spiritual endurance in the dungeon. On the Danube-Black Sea Death Canal he was assigned to the special brigade for priests, where torture through work, sleeplessness, starvation and beatings knew no forms of maximum bestiality. Mocked, tormented, tortured, Archimandrite Gherasim and the other priests endured the ordeal with honour. Later, the priest fell ill with T.B.C. and was taken to Târgu Ocna, where he died like an angel in the flesh.

(Ioan Ianolide – Return to Christ. Document for a New World, Bonifaciu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, p. 326)