Biography of confessor Aristide Lefa
Aristide (Tedi) Lefa was born on 17 February 1923 in Comuna Cârja, Vaslui County, the son of Nicolae, a farmer, and Ana, a housewife. He graduated from the M. Kogălniceanu Theoretical High School in Vaslui (1934-1942), was admitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Iași in 1943, and transferred to Bucharest in 1946, where he was appointed honorary resident in surgery at the Central Military Hospital.
During his studies, he joined the Brotherhood of the Cross, an organisation of the Legion, through which he developed socially, morally and as a Christian. In Bucharest, he continued his Legionary training as part of the anti-communist struggle. On 22 May 1948, he was arrested by the secret service, subjected to a harsh investigation and imprisoned in Jilava prison. During the rage and torture of the investigation, Tedi’s eardrum was broken from the outset, as he did not want to talk. On 19 January 1949, he was sentenced by the military court in Bucharest to 8 years’ hard labour, 8 years’ civil servant status and confiscation of property for the crime of “conspiracy against social order”. Taken to Jilava, then transferred to Pitești in February 1949.
After passing through the sorting committee of the Văcărești hospital, on 4 February 1950 he escaped from the hell of re-education in Pitești and was sent to the TBC sanatorium at Târgu Ocna. Here, under the supervision of the official doctor Dr Margareta Danielescu-Pescaru, he carried out a rich medical activity. He was categorically opposed to the attempt at re-education in Pitești, led by the political officer Șleam Augustin with the help of a small group of students who had passed through Pitești. The most seriously ill were housed in room 4. It was here that people often died and others took their place. From the first days after his arrival in Târgu Ocna, Aristide accompanied Dr N. Floricel and Dr Danielescu on their daily visits to the sick and administered the prescribed medicines. Valeriu Gafencu, among others, was in room 4. There was a spiritual life in Târgu Ocna, promoted mainly by Valeriu and Ioan Ianolide. The hesychast prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner”, which most of the prisoners recited, protected them from the re-education efforts of the prison administration. Aristide also said this prayer and continued to do so after his release until the moment of his death.
On 4 February 1953, he was sent to Gherla prison with five other colleagues, where he remained until the end of his sentence on 29 May 1956. However, because he refused to become an informer for the Securitate, he was not released, but was placed under house arrest in the commune of Rubla, in the district of Însurăței-Galați. That same year, in June, he was allowed to go to the hospital in Viziru, to the surgery department there. He was unanimously appreciated by the higher authorities and the patients. A year later, on 1 March 1957, he married Cornelia-Mariana, the daughter of the priest Bucur Ferăstrău, who was also in compulsory military service. Their first daughter, Nicoleta-Cristina, was born on 8 December 1957.
The peace did not last long, because on the night of 19-20 September 1958 he was arrested again and taken to the Noua Culme colony in Constanta, where he was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment. This time was even harder, as he was now responsible for a family that was starving: “I was no longer alone as when I was first arrested; I had a family and a child. As in all difficult situations, I found peace and serenity through prayer”. Isolated one night (January 1959) at minus 15 degrees, dressed in an thin and very threadbare prison outfit, he walked around the cell for 12 hours to avoid freezing.
In October 1959, after a year of inhuman detention, they were transferred to the Periprava labour colony in the Danube Delta (the Grind colony within Periprava). They remained there until 30 November 1959. In 1961, after refusing to collaborate with the Securitate, his sentence was extended for another 36 months. In 1963, the security forces forced his wife to divorce him. He was released on 9 May 1964 after 16 years in prison. His daughter Nicoleta was 9 months old when he was arrested for the second time and is now 7 years old. He was an example of a parent to the children he raised. His life is an example of honesty, modesty, helping others and above all a true Christian of the Orthodox Church. He helped many prisoners during his career. Some he brought back from the brink of death by operating with improvised instruments, others by insisting to the administration that they were too weak to be transferred to lighter work, and others simply by his warm and gentle word.
He was employed at the Copșa-Mică Hospital, in the surgery department. His second daughter, Delia-Mariana, was born on 1 July 1967. He was not allowed to graduate from university and only completed the Biology Faculty in Bucharest without attending classes (1968-1972) because of his past.
Between 1972 and 1986, he worked as a biochemist at the Ilfov County Polyclinic, then at the Sector 4 Clinical Hospital in Bucharest, from which he retired on 1 July 1986, but continued to work at the Pantelimon Street Polyclinic. He remarried Feodora Popovici in 1982. He lost his first daughter Nicoleta in tragic circumstances on 22 October 1988.
After 1989, his education and nature did not allow him to remain indifferent. Together with other comrades, he founded the “Prof. George Manu” Foundation and later the magazine “Permanențe”, of which he was the editor and for which he wrote almost every issue. Some of his articles were published in the booklet “For the Knowledge of the Truth” (2nd edition, 2000). He also contributed articles to the national and international press. In 1998, his excellent autobiographical volume “Fericiți cei ce plâng” (Blessed are those who mourn), Bucharest, ed. Eminescu. From there you can know the gentle, heroic and perfect Christian Aristide Lefa.
On 12 July 2009, after a long suffering, he entered into the arms of eternity to meet the Bridegroom Christ and His Saints.
(Ion Popescu – Permanence Magazine, July-August 2009)