Daniil Sandu Tudor from Rarău in the fight against communist atheism
In November 1953, Hieroschemamonk Daniil, former monk Agathon Sandu Tudor, arrived at the Rarău Hermitage in Suceava as abbot. He had lived for a year in the Neamului Hermitage, in that monastery under the spiritual direction of Father Cleopa Ilie and with the help of Arsenie Papacioc. He had become accustomed to monastic life according to the studied rule inherited from the elder Ioil Gheorghiu, but now Hieroschemamonk Daniil was seeking isolation and the realisation of an older idea: that of building a spiritual settlement where intellectual monks could live and face the great challenge facing Christianity: communist atheism. But the implementation of this idea disturbed the communist authorities, especially since many tourists who went to the Rara hut inevitably visited the hermitage of Hieroschemamonk Daniil.
In this context, Securitate informers reported that Abbot Daniil often gave real apologetic lectures, especially to young people at risk of communist indoctrination. One such moment is described by a Securitate informer in February 1956, when a group of students visited the Rarău Hermitage: “Each group was put in the position of listening to a real lecture given by the Abbot of the Hermitage, a lecture that directly attacked materialism. On the day I was there, the abbot of the monastery was waiting for us and he attacked the question of the origin of man. He pointed out that the animal theory of man is supported by those who want to turn man into a robot, those who want to handcuff man’s freedom in order to turn him into a machine to be directed towards certain ends. He also pointed out that certain party activists, who according to him have only four years of schooling and are therefore illiterate, present themselves as scientists, generally base their convictions on the discoveries of science, but on closer examination they reveal that they have no idea what science is. In general, the abbot spoke as boldly and even as dangerously as possible about the new times.
He also touched on other subjects in his talk, which resonated deeply with the audience. He is a very well-prepared man and managed to win many over to his side. On that day, a student from the Faculty of Civil Engineering tried to fight him, but lost, to the almost unanimous delight of the audience, who could not help laughing out loud as the student lost step by step in what I thought was a rather uneven battle, given the education of both. The lecture, like the fight, ended with the victory of the abbot, a victory that gave great pleasure to the visitors. Back at the hermitage, the discussion continued almost all day on the subject of the abbot, who, in the opinion of many, is right. …In conclusion, I have the impression that the visits of the tourists to the hermitage are eagerly awaited by the abbot and the rest of the monks, and that the welcome as well as the lectures given by the abbot are well organised. The visitors remain satisfied and convinced by the abbot and immediately become his defenders”.
Another informer, in June 1956, gave a sometimes exaggerated and tendentious account of the life of the Abbot of Rarău: “Sandu Tudor carries out a lively orthodox missionary activity and boasts that he has fought against numerous professors of natural sciences, questioning evolutionist theories in front of the pupils with whom these professors came on excursions. He says that in the hermitage people feel freer to express their true views and that he has had very interesting discussions with teachers and students from Bucharest, from which he has seen that young people do not accept communist indoctrination at all. He assured me that in his hermitage one could discuss anything without fear, as the security service could not monitor him. He assured me that he had personally recruited all his monks and brothers to be sure of them, and that he had removed the dubious ones. … He intends to organise a reactionary philosophical circle in the hermitage. In general, he wants to attract intellectuals to monasticism, but he admits that he has not succeeded so far. That is why he values peasants with character more than bourgeois intellectuals who prostitute themselves. He condemned the legionnaire movement and its terrorist methods, but expressed his total admiration for the young legionnaires he had met during his years in prison. To this end, he planned to enlarge the hermitage and turn Rarău into a real monastic fortress. In this fortress, he hopes to work mainly with legionaries who have escaped from prison. He has the promise of many in prison.
Obviously, these beautiful aspirations of the popular abbot of Rarău could not be allowed by the communist authorities, who would arrest him on the night of 13-14 June 1958 in the Burning Bush group and condemn him to years of imprisonment.
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Ziarul Lumina)