Constantin Oprișan (en)

Suddenly the door was pushed aside and the room was filled with people. Barefoot and with hats in their arms, they looked at us and at the order in the room in horror. Behind them came Mr Țurcanu, walking with measured steps! There was silence, as if waiting for a verdict. Most of the newcomers looked older than us. Mr Țurcanu, after moving them around, addressed the one on the far right of the row: “How are you, Costache?” To which he made a gesture that should have meant, “As you can see!” The big boss showed him the seat […]

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“Constantin (Costache) Oprișan – a man over 30. Head of the Brotherhood of the Cross in the country. A man of impressive character and culture. In Pitești, Țurcanu prepared the most terrible tortures for him, physically destroying him and humiliating him. His back, from his neck to his heels, was covered with scars. All his flesh was torn to shreds. Țurcanu succeeded in “disciplining” him in the sense of making him obey his orders, but he did not succeed in transforming his conscience into a convinced communist, as he did with others. This Costache Oprișan was too strong. In the […]

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I arrived [in Pitești n.n.] around March 1950. The neighbours on our right told us that Gioga Parizianu, who was in their cell, had been taken away with his luggage, without knowing where. In this cell were two of his classmates, Dumitru Bordeianu and his brother-in-law Mircea Mihai Iosub, both from Drăgușeni-Baia, as well as Costache Oprișan, the former national commander of the Brotherhood of the Cross. (…) Then followed the removal to the programme, as it was called, the removal of the buckets to empty those designated for human waste and to fill those designated for water consumption. (…) […]

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I was very lucky because I was one of the sixteen people the Securitate took to Jilava prison, where my spiritual healing began. In Jilava they built a special semi-cylindrical cell. It was like a cylinder cut in half. I was underground; Jilava is built underground. There was seven metres of earth above the cell. You can’t see Jilava – the whole prison is underground. In this cylinder they built four cells, no windows, only one door. An electric light burned day and night. They put four of us in each cell. In each cell there was either a very […]

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Where there was unity, deep faith and prayer, there was perseverance. The Securitate divided us in such a way that in every cell there was a man who was destructive, either morally or physically. In our cell they put Costache Oprișan, who spat out his lungs – I’m not making a figure of speech, he actually spat out blood clots and pieces of lung every morning. In the second cell there were two lunatics, in the third cell the same, one with mental instability. They all died in the cell with the two lunatics! We resisted because we were grouped […]

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Whenever we turn to the lives of the saints, we notice that the accounts of the martyrs’ martyrdom are written in an aestheticised style, although the circumstances described are in fact terrible. Of course, the motivation for this delicate approach is justified by the severity and brutality of the sufferings endured by the holy Martyrs, which, if recounted in detail, would frighten to despair instead of inspiring strong faith. For this reason, the words that make up the life of the Martyrs and the victims of righteous faith are carefully worded in order to soften the brutality that all martyrdom […]

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Gheorghe Calciu told me that Costache Oprișan, the leader of the student legionaries, had died in his arms. I had known Costache Oprișan since 1940 and was interested in his development. In 1941 Oprișan fled to Germany as a high school graduate. He was particularly interested in philosophy and literature. As a result, some of the most highly educated people in these disciplines were eager to cultivate him. By 1946, he was constantly studying and had acquired a remarkable knowledge of philosophy.

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We were taken out of our rooms and cells and taken to room 99 on the same floor (…). Most of the people I met in room 99 were students: Costache Oprișan, Stuparu Mhai, Ghiță Calciu, Magirescu Eugen, Păvăloaia, Bordeianu Virgil, Lică Condurache, I don’t remember the names of others. (…) Finally, dinner was served, roll call was taken and the end of the meeting was announced. Costache Oprișan came up to me and told me that he knew me from hearsay, that he was a friend of Paragina’s and that he was happy to have met me in person. […]

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That evening, a rather large group of students entered the room[1]. Aurel Obreja whispered to me: – This is Costache Oprișan. I only knew him by reputation. Although he was very weak and ill, his physiognomy inspired confidence; his slightly protruding chin gave him an air of great will.

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Due to the increasing number of patients and the overcrowding of the infirmary, I was transferred to the TB ward in the old cell, also called ‘Zarca Gherlei’. The conditions here were better, with small cells of two beds; we could find the peace and quiet we so desperately needed. Here I found some students who had passed through Pitești, who had come out of the terror of the demolitions and were publicly discussing the crimes committed during the debunkings. The first to come to see me was N. Cojocaru from Bacău, who had just come out of re-education. He […]

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From Gherla we play another scene. A group of students from Târgșor are brought into a large room. They knew nothing about re-education. The “re-educated” students start to challenge them and they get involved in the game. The head of the Brotherhood of the Cross himself was brought in to incite them. An anti-revolutionary, mystical, nationalist atmosphere was created, with meetings, oaths, songs and heated speeches. The young students vibrated with an unspeakable joy and expressed their convictions with enthusiasm, openness and devotion. But all this was carefully recorded by the “re-educated”. Then one day the thieves appeared. They entered […]

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Costache Oprișan crossed the threshold of this life in July 1958. Those of us who were in the cell furthest away from Costache Oprișan noticed some unusual noises in Casimcă. I felt a pang in my heart that Costache Oprișan, whom I knew to be very ill with tuberculosis, might have died. I didn’t hear the poisonous news right away, but a little later, in circumstances I don’t remember. I said one thing then and I say it now:

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Since the beginning of my imprisonment, the most impressive thing has been our solidarity. Personally, I became attached to my suffering brothers – and not only to the legionaries – that is, to those who opposed communism. Many of those in prison were like angels. The one who impressed me the most was Constantin Oprișan. We spent a year in the same cell. He was a man of extraordinary complexity, a master of various fields, from music and art to mathematics and philosophy. By nature he was very affectionate and lived everything to the full. He was subjected to the […]

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One day Țurcanu came and announced that Costache Oprișan, the head of the Brotherhoods of the Cross in the country, was being brought to our room. – “You bandits”, he said to us, “don’t say a word and hide your faces so as not to show your bruises, otherwise you’ll be worse off than before!” Then he whispered instructions to this committee and the others on the other side of the room. I dreaded the thought of what I knew was coming. Indeed, not long after, the door opened and the guard pushed in a man a little older than […]

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In 1945, when I had to leave Târnave, I was sent to Bucharest. I ended up in the house of Mrs. Staicovici (…). It was here that I met Costache Oprișan, the leader of the Brotherhood of the Cross in the country. If I remember rightly, he also took over the work that Fane had done. Costache was dark-haired, of good height, with a gentle and dreamy look. An inward-looking, slightly expansive being. A good companion, a good fighter. He had a lot of love for the people around him. I saw him again in 1946 in Cluj. In 1948 […]

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