Archimandrite Grigorie Băbuș in the clutches of the Communist Securitate
At the beginning of 1958, the communist authorities, through the Securitate and the Department of Religious Affairs, launched a campaign of defamation and intimidation against the Romanian Orthodox Church in order to force it to implement the plan to drastically limit the monastic phenomenon. The communist regime considered monasticism to be a real threat to the construction of socialism in Romania, on the grounds that it involved “intense legionary activity under a religious mask”. Among those targeted were particularly trusted clerics around Patriarch Justinian Marina, such as Bartholomew Ananias and Gregory Băbuș. The latter was targeted by the Securitate because he was seen as a link in the so-called Legionary conspiracy at the top of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Grigore Băbuș was born on 3 June 1915 in the town of Teișani, in the province of Prato. At the age of 13, he entered as a brother in the monastery of Cheia, in his native area, run by his uncle, Archimandrite Grigorie Georgescu. At the age of 18 he entered the theological seminary of the Cernica monastery, where he was a fellow student of the theologians Arăpașu and Sofian Boghiu. After graduating from the seminary, he attended the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, where he obtained his doctorate. During this period he was cantor and hierodeacon at the Patriarchal Cathedral, and on 22 February 1948 he was ordained a priest. Shortly afterwards he was appointed abbot of the Entry Monastery, where he lived for a short time, because Patriarch Justinian Marina called him to Bucharest. In 1950 he received the rank of Protosinghel and on 25 March 1956 that of Archimandrite.
From a political point of view, in 1936, while still in the seminary, Father Băbuș, like other colleagues, was enrolled in the Brotherhood of the Cross by the Latin teacher Paul Gălășeanu, who was a militant of the Legionary Movement. His involvement in Legionary politics was formal and ended after the Legionary uprising, when the movement was excluded from the country’s leadership. However, the political stigma remained on his record with the State Security, a situation that was to cause him a number of problems. In October 1943, together with another brother, Ilie Bărbărie, he was arrested at the Antim Monastery (the theological students’ hostel) for possessing legionary material. In fact, after the rebellion, the young man had given some legionary books with his signature to the abbot Nicodim Ioniță, who did not hand them over to the state authorities but kept them in the attic of the monastery. During a search by the security police, the books were found and Grigorie Băbuș ended up in Malmaison prison. After a month and a half in prison, he was acquitted by the Bucharest martial court and released.
On his return to Bucharest in 1948, he inevitably came into contact with his friend from his student days, Bartholomew Ananias, who also bore the unfortunate stigma of “legionnaire” in the records of the Securitate. They collaborated in the establishment of the Patriarchal Library and served in the Patriarchal Cathedral. In 1957, Professor P. Gălășeanu, from his seminary days, investigated Father Băbuș, to whom he confessed. At the same time, the poet Radu Gyr asked Bartholomew Ananias for a confessor for his wife. Ananias recommended Father Băbuș, who becomes Gyr’s wife’s confessor. Together with Ananias, Father Băbuș also helped materially and financially the wife of a political prisoner, a friend from his student days. All this, in the context of the arrest campaign launched by the Securitate, led to the arrest of Father Băbuș on the night of 13-14 March 1959. During the investigation, even in his confrontation with Radu Gyr, Father Băbuș refused to admit to the legionary activity of which the investigators accused him. However, “as a former member of the legionary organisation”, he was accused of “re-establishing criminal links with Valerius Ananias in the course of the legionary organisation’s activities”, “helping legionary elements” and “counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation”. At the trial, he denied any political activity, and the prosecution witnesses supported him. However, he was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment for “conspiracy against the social order” by judgement no. 750 of 29 July 1959. On appeal, Father Băbuș had his sentence increased to 20 years’ hard labour. He was imprisoned in the prisons of MAI (August 1959), Jilava (August 1959), Aiud (November 1959) and the Ostrov labour camp (October 1963). He was released from Ostrov camp on 29 July 1964.
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Ziarul Lumina, electronic edition of 13 November 2015)