Fr. Constantin Galeriu (en)

Father Constantin Galeriu, The Preacher of fire

When he preached, he often opened his hands. He would open them wide, as if he wanted to embrace the whole sky with them, and with him, the people in the church. In his golden robe, he looked like an eagle ready to soar. That’s how he was remembered. As a great preacher. So great that he seemed to be the only one in the grey atmosphere of Bucharest at the end of the century and the millennium. When you went to church to listen to him, his voice held you in place. It was deep, wide, sweeping, with depths […]

“Father Professor Dr. Constantin Galeriu, an exceptional priest and preacher”

St. John Chrysostom, in his famous treatise on the priesthood, says that “the listeners judge the sermon not only by the words spoken, but also by the fame of the preacher…” For several decades, Fr. Galeriu has been the most famous Romanian priest in Bucharest, in the country and even abroad. He is the priest whose fame, especially as a preacher, makes Christians come to the Church of St. Slivestru to see and hear him from afar, at any time of the year and in spite of all difficulties. Especially after the events of December ’89, when communication was no […]

A Truly Modern Priest or the Call to live one’s uniqueness

When Father Galeriu died, I was about to go on holiday… I thought about other things than his departure. Although he had been bedridden for several months, he seemed immortal to me. As on the night of the Resurrection, on that day of 13 August 2003, people had gathered at the Church of Saint Sylvester in Bucharest. The square in front of the church was crowded with about 2500-3000 faithful. There was a general murmur: “A saint has died! It was a mass confession. And wasn’t it? Had not the Romanians sent a new victim, one of the most distinguished, […]

An emblematic father of Romania at the end of the millennium

A picturesque figure. With his patriarchal beard, always neatly combed; with his broad-brimmed hat, like a nimbus around his concentrated face; with the lap of his cloak fluttering, not in the wind, but with his swift gait; with a black gullet, burled in winter, around his neck; with his omnipresence in so many meetings, from those of the humblest schools to those of the most sociable societies, with the way he always notices and greets everyone, smiling and benevolent, with kind words of healing; as you see him reading deeply, his old-fashioned glasses always seeming to slide down the tip […]

Father Galeriu, the “Messiah of the people of Bucharest”

Father CONSTANTIN GALERIU (Costachi Galeriu) was born in Răcătău commune, Răzeși village, Bacău county, on the eve of the Great Unification, on 21 November 1918, to pious parents Elisabeta and Neculai. After a childhood full of traditions, he attended the St. George Seminary in Roman for 8 years, then the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest for another 4 years (1930-1942), under the guidance of the great theologian-poet Nichifor Crainic, where he defended his bachelor’s thesis entitled “The Theosis of Man”.

“Father Galeriu, one of the best known and most loved priests in our Church”

With his simple name, unencumbered by the burden of academic and administrative titles, “Father Galeriu” was one of the best known and most beloved priests of our Church, because of his unrepeatable value and uniqueness. With his true and beautiful name, Galeri Costachi, which I never understood why he kept it only in his documents, he was born in the beautiful land of Moldova, in the village of Răcătău, Horgești commune, Bacău county, on 21 November 1918, in a family of people with a strong faith in God and respect for their fellow men, Moldovan peasants, who planted in the […]

The unknown sufferings of Father Galeriu

Most memories of a person can be learned from those with whom he or she spent the most time. A spiritual portrait of Fr. Galeriu could not have been better drawn than by another altar server of St. Sylvester, with whom he spent more than 20 years, Fr. Nicolae Bordașiu. His words present us with a man fully identified with his mission, that of being an image of humility and love of Christ for the world, listening to its weaknesses and bringing healing to those overwhelmed by suffering and need.

Discipleship through Father Galeriu’s approach

Just as grace cannot be grasped with the means of this world, just as the soul cannot be grasped, so the personality of the Father cannot be grasped in words, cannot be put into a pattern. And just as each one travels “on a ray”, has his own path and his own vocation towards the unique goal – Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, so each one of the Father’s disciples had his own unique experience, his own life, his own moment of awakening and attainment of grace. “Unity in diversity” – as Father used to say, or: “We are many, […]

Father Galeriu changed my life!

A distinguished painter, a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, a respected publicist and the founder of the “Anastasia” publishing house, Sorin Dumitrescu is a practitioner of Orthodoxy. A spectacular journey from the “hell” of indifference. “My grandmother played an essential role in my religious upbringing”. – Your fame as a great painter is fraternally shared with that of a “man of God”. Have you always been a believer? – I don’t remember ever being disloyal. But in my opinion, to be a believer is also to practice faith. Well, this happened to me later, I was never anti-religious, but […]

“Like an apostle he went from man to man to encourage us” – Father Constantin Galeriu in the extermination camp of the Galeș Coast

On a gloomy, cold and rainy night, as if the weather too was crying out for mercy, we were rounded up, a few hundred of us, and buried in the dirt roads, arriving, I don’t know how long ago, at the newly founded colony of Coasta Galeș. If I remember correctly, it was around the end of October or the beginning of November 1952. We were immediately assigned to dormitories in wooden barracks, 80 overlaied beds each.

Father Galeriu, the peacemaker

The story of Father Galeriu’s life was told to us by Rodion and Ciprian, two of his four sons. Filtered through their childhood memories, the sparks of the grace of a preacher we would call paradigmatic for the end of the 20th century have reached us. This, after all, was Father Galeriu: the preacher in absolute condition, with unspeakably kind eyes and great love for people. He came to the world to reconcile it. He remained among us to watch over us and give us good advice from his place, from above.

“I was not tormented by the blows I received. Frankly, I was tormented by the human decay.”

Father Professor Galeriu, many people will know and respect you, but few know that in 1952 the Communists deported you to the Canal for forced labour. What guilt could they find in a man like you? At that time I was working in the church of St. Vasile in Ploiești, preaching and above all doing what we call catechesis, that is, sharing with the people the doctrine of Christ the Saviour, the doctrine of the Church. I would like to point out that at that time the Church was very humiliated and we, its Orthodox ministers, did not have the […]

“Father Galeriu is alive”

Father Constantin Galeriu, one of the most prominent confessors of Bucharest, died 10 years ago. His unfailing love for God and his neighbour, his words full of wisdom and consolation, his life lived fully in Christ, can never be forgotten… The humble house of St. Sylvester’s Church, where Father lived, always had its door open, both to his spiritual sons and to the ordinary faithful or to those in need. It remains so today. At the door you will be greeted by Sister Argentina, who recently reached the venerable age of 88. “Grandma” Argentina, as she is called by the […]

Father Galeriu’s will

Many and wonderful are the words that the great confessor, Father Constantin Galeriu, left to his spiritual sons, but also to the whole of humanity, Christian and Romanian. To humanity, because in all his teachings he spoke of the whole man in the world, “man created in the image of God”, often quoting the contemporary Indian who said: “Christianity belongs to Christ, but Christ does not belong to Christians alone”… To the Christian race, because that was his creed: “Christians are the visionaries of the world”; and this creed was taken from the Gospel, it was the Saviour’s word, taken […]

Father Galeriu from Silvestru or “Sunday Man”

Throughout his life – the longest possible – Father Galeriu remained the most universal Romanian. An inquisitive man, but also of a robust peace, as if for eternity, he searched with his thoughtful finger “the whole breadth and length and height and depth of the mystery”. He was the first man I’d met who was beyond panic – the unfettering curse of any small time or man. Modestly but immaculately dressed, he was always heading for celebration, however small the goals at the end of the road; indeed, Father Galerius never stopped and never tired of celebrating. If in the […]

Memories from the second row about Father Galeriu

I am not one of Father Galeriu’s close students. Although I was in St. Sylvester’s Church Sunday after Sunday during the last six years of his life, I was always a mere anonymous spectator, one of the masses that more often than not filled the church to capacity. My memories and thoughts, therefore, are “from the second row”, from the distance at which I was mostly with His Holiness – perhaps relevant, however, precisely from this perspective, namely from the perspective of the many, the very many, on whom the Father’s charismatic influence was manifested from afar, from the distance […]

Father Constantin Galeriu at the beginning of the communist regime

He was one of the greatest Romanian Orthodox preachers and theologians of the 20th century. His work is studied and known, but his biography, often marked by the pressure of the communist authorities, is less well known. He was born on 21 November 1918 in Răcătău-Răzeși, Bacău County, into a family of simple, hardworking and faithful people. After primary school in his native commune, the young Constantine attended the St George Theological Seminary in Roman from 1930 to 1938. He continued his priestly studies at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, where he graduated in 1942.

About Father Galeriu, with love “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

So each word began… And then, the “beloved” word, which resounds throughout the church… I miss that name. Then came the explanation of the Gospel pericope of the day, with an unmistakable combination of registers: scriptural, patristic, artistic, scientific… Father Galeriu gave a group of children a little guide for listening: listening to our parents, praying for them, getting along with each other, washing the dishes, doing little chores around the house, according to age? I mean involvement, taking things step by step… Not exactly an invitation to the unwilling mischief-makers. But the joy that accompanied his words, his gestures, […]