Deacon Teodor Codilă from Bihor, died in communist prison
He was born on 24 January 1920 to a simple family from Toboliu, Bihor County. After attending primary school in his native village, young Codilă enrolled at the Oradea Normal School (1932-1940). When the north-west of Transylvania was ceded, Teodor Codilă took refuge in Arad. Here he enrolled at the Theological Academy as a refugee with a state scholarship. However, during the Legionary government, his scholarship was made conditional on his membership of the Legionary Movement. Because he voted “no” in the plebiscite organised by the Antonescu government in July 1941, his house in Arad was searched by the security police, who found a copy of the book “For the Legionaries”.
Although the book did not belong to him, young Codilă was arrested, but the court martial decided to search him while he was still at liberty. Fearing investigations by the Security Police, Codilă left for Germany via Vârșet and Breslau on the night of 20-21 September 1941.
On 20 December 1941, he was investigated by the Gestapo and later sent to the Rostock camp. At Christmas 1943, he was transferred with other legionnaires to the Buchenwald camp, where he worked in an optical workshop until August 1944. After the Anglo-American bombing raids in August 1944, he was transferred to Vienna to join the Simist legionary group. In November 1944, together with Gligor Cantemir, he was parachuted by the German Air Force in the area of Târnova, Arad County. He refused to take part in the sabotage operations requested of him from Vienna, preferring to return to his native village.
In 1945, with the blessing of Bishop Nicolae Popovici of Oradea, he enrolled in the second year of the Theological Academy in Cluj. As the pro-Communist authorities had been informed about the parachutists of the German Air Force, he was investigated by the Security Police between 13 and 23 November 1945. He was arrested on 1 December 1945 and investigated again until 19 December 1945. He was accused of having been part of a subversive organisation in Arad in 1940 and of having recruited young people into the Legion after his return in 1944. He was sent to the military tribunal for “participation in a prohibited public organisation”, in accordance with Decree No. 2936/1941. On 15 January 1946, his trial was suspended and he returned to his home village. Subsequently, by decree no. 4306 of 19 December 1946, he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, suspended, by the Military Court Martial of the 6th Territorial Corps of Cluj, with a change of classification to the offence of “conspiracy against the social order”. Teodor Codilă appeals, and by decree no. 1238bis of 30 April 1947, he was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment for “public incitement”. Despite these hardships caused by the communist authorities, Codilă continued his theological studies and attended the Cluj Conservatory, and on 1 March 1948 he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Nicolae Popovici. He served in Oradea, but not for long.
On 31 August 1948, he was arrested by the Securitate for belonging to the Cluj student group that took part in the 1946 demonstrations, along with other students from the Faculty of Arts. He was subjected to harsh interrogation by the Securitate in Cluj, accused of conspiring against the “democratic-popular” regime. By decree no. 715 of 23 April 1949, Codilă was sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour by the Cluj Military Tribunal for the crime of “conspiracy against the social order”. He was held in the prisons of Aiud (1949) and Pitești (1949). After re-education through physical torture, he was sent to the Baia Sprie forced labour colony. There, “while he was working in the mine, one and a half tonnes of rock fell on him and broke his whole body”, according to a Securitate document. Teodor Codilă died in the Baia Sprie colony on 2 May 1953.
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Ziarul Lumina, electronic edition of 27 March 2017)