Early pastorate and ministry at Sapienței Church

On the 1st of June 1964, Father Constantin Sârbu arrived with difficulty at 5 Sapienția Street and entered the courtyard full of puddles, sitting on a stump to rest and look at the place of worship entrusted to him.

The first person who came his way, who entered the gate of this settlement after him, was Mrs. Matilda (Cocuța) Mircea. She was chosen by God and sent to Father Constantine, following the prayers of His Holiness, to be his indispensable help in the most difficult time – the beginning. God gave long days and protected Mrs. Matilda’s health, perhaps also to bear witness to the work done there.

She asked us not to mention anything about the ascetic life she led and continues to lead, but with great kindness she shared with us her memories of the years of close collaboration with Father Constantin Sârbu, whom she helped every day during the first three years and who continues to be a great support for the Church. We have faithfully recorded and reproduced the conversations that some of the contributors to this work had with her, sometimes changing only the order of the recollections in order to fit them more usefully into the work. 

Could you tell us, first of all, how you, who have lived in Bucureștii Noi for 63 years, arrived from here, near the Izvor Bridge, at the Sapienței Church, and on the very first day or days that Fr. Constantin Sârbu was there?

I will tell you. Because of the disturbances in the church in our neighbourhood in Bucureștii Noi, everyone scattered. I began to pray every day, reading the Paraklesis to the Theotokos and asking her to show me where to go, because I needed food for my soul. One night I dreamt of a young man in a long white shirt who asked me: “Do you want to be stronger in spirit? Get up and walk with me! I went and – in my dream – took tram 20, which arrived at the Izvor Bridge. From there we walked to the Church of Wisdom. When we reached the church gate, the young man left me alone and I woke up.

In the morning, as soon as I got up, I set off along the same road, feeling that the young man from my dream was accompanying me. When I reached the church gate, this feeling disappeared. In the unkempt, deserted courtyard of the church, I saw Father Constantin Sârbu sitting on a tree stump. As soon as he saw me, he came up to me and said:

– Welcome, Matilda Cocuța! I prayed to God to send me a man to help me. What can you do, a woman? But maybe you can help me. Come and sit on the stump next to me!

I wondered. He didn’t know me, he didn’t know who I was. How did he know my name? But I didn’t say anything, I just sat next to him on the stump. Then Father began to tell me that he had come from prison, that he had asked to be reinstated, that he had been entrusted to the Church of Wisdom, and that from now on we would pray to God together. But for now he has no place to sleep, no keys to the church and no keys to the rectory.

He sleeps among the ruins of the church of Domnița Bălașa, on a mat made of rags, like those that are placed in houses in the countryside. He also told me that he was hungry. I went to look for food. Opposite the church gate was a big, beautiful house with a garage downstairs. The door was open and a lady was making sandwiches:

– Madam, look, a priest has come out of prison, he’s hungry. Give me some food and water for him!

– Leave me alone! was her reply.

I told her again, and when I saw that she didn’t want it, I took what I could when she turned away and left. But then I came back and told her it was alms for whomever she wanted.

After Father had eaten, we looked around the church. At the front, up to the gate, there were weeds. At the back was ruin: a chicken coop, rat tracks, carbage, a big mess.

– Are we doing anything here, Cocuțo? Father asked me.

– If God brought you here, we will! I encouraged him.

– Where can we get people from?

– I’ll bring them from Bucureștii Noi. But pray. I’m a sinner. If you pray, we’ll do it!

He laughed a little, then he said: “Now let’s go to the cemetery, to my wife!”

But he had trouble walking, he needed a stick. I found one in the garden next door.

On the way he told me what he had suffered in prison, how they had beaten them. He always told them they’d get them out for some fresh air. In fact, as they walked in a circle, one by one, two guards, one on one side, the other on the other, whenever they passed them, they would hit them on the back of the head or wherever they hit them with their batons. Father walked heavily, he had heavy, big boots with almost no soles and old clothes he had left prison in.

In the Belu cemetery, where we arrived, the grave bench had a broken leg. I put it back as best I could and Father sat down. Then he told me again that he was hungry. I think he really was hungry, but maybe he told me so he could be alone at his wife’s grave. It was Saturday and they were having commemoration services. I went to the gate of the cemetery to get alms from the people. A lady also gave me a glass to bring him water in. But when I returned to the grave, I saw that Father was lying face down on the grave with his stick beside him. I was frightened.

What happened to me before I picked him up! I put him on the bench. Tears ran down his boots as he told me how he met his wife, what a great woman she was, how much she helped him, and how she died, leaving him with two little girls to raise until his arrest. They were left in the care of the candlewoman in the church of the Virgin. He didn’t know where they were and didn’t want to see him in his condition.

When we got back to the church, Father wanted to see Miss Bălașa, so I said to him:

– Let’s make a little room for you, so that you don’t have to stay with Miss Bălașa under the rubble!

– With what shall we do it?

– I know the Abbot of Cernica!

Father gave me a letter in which he told me how he had come out of prison, in what condition he was, how he had been accepted to serve in the Church of Sapienția and how he needed his help. At that time Father Roman Ialomițeanul was the abbot.

The next day I went to Cernica.

The abbot promised to help us. In fact, a day or two later, the car arrived from Cernica with reeds, tools, lime, sand, plaster and two monks for the work.

I also took Ion from Chiva and another from Bucureștii Noi. In the tram we met another acquaintance from Dămăroaia. I told him where we were going and he joined us. I can’t tell you how God helped us. In one day we made the structure and covered it with earth. By the time we finished the shed, by the time it was dry, Father had moved into the cellar where the boiler is now.

At that time it was just rubbish, up to the window. We took out the rubbish, cleaned up as much as we could and Father slept there for about a week.

How did Fr. Constantine get the first help to start his work?

I’ll give an example. While we were still building the little room at the back of the church, Father sent me to the post office to send a letter, I think for abroad. There’s this high wall (the post office wall) behind which the post office girls work. One of them was crying and crying and crying. I asked her:

– Why are you crying? Why are you crying?

– Leave me alone! she replied.

– I won’t leave you!

Tell me, I know a good priest. If you go to him and tell him your troubles, he’ll help you. Take this letter and come with me, I’ll take you there!

I didn’t leave her until she came with me. Father spoke to her, prayed with her, taught her what to do and encouraged her that in two or three days she would have no more reason to cry. I think her husband had left the house. In fact, a few days later, the lady came and, as a sign of gratitude and joy, she brought a sofa with armrests, a table, a chair and furnished the small room. She also brought clothes and boots, so much so that Father gave me as a souvenir the boots and trousers he came out of prison in, which I still have.

Also, the lady opposite the church, who at first didn’t want to give me the sandwiches, saw that some work was being done and probably talked to Father, and gave me money with which I bought materials and made the roof of the little room.

The keys to the church and the rectory were given to Father a few days after his arrival, but he could not move into the rectory because it was in ruins, the roof was broken and the garden wall was damaged. Until the spring or summer of the following year, 1965, Father lived in the little house we had built in the courtyard. Through the walls you could see outside, it was raining in the church.

Inside there were statues piled up without hands, stone slabs on the floor, some leaning, some missing, spider webs on the walls. We removed the statues and tidied up.

Father prayed long and hard, on his knees and in tears for his work. At one point, he told me, he secretly revealed to me a great joy of his. While he was praying, he saw the “Last Supper” clearly before his eyes on the altar and heard it said to him: “Get up and work!”

– God will help us, he said.

At the same time, Father said to me:

– I can’t communicate with with you!

I couldn’t speak very well. I had an operation on my thyroid. During the operation, my vocal chords were affected and I spoke more from my throat. Dad could hardly understand me. Then he said to me

– You stay outside because I’m going to church to pray that God will give you speech, because I can’t work with you like this!

– And what should I do?

– You do prostrations and pray what you know and how you know it!

After a while he called me from the church:

– Cocuțo!

– Yes, Father! I replied loudly so that he could hear me.

And he revived my speech, and since then I have spoken as I speak now.

When did Father begin his ministry? What was the first Liturgy you attended?

– What do we do, cousin? We have to pray for God’s mercy and help to descend upon us. Where else are we going to find Christians to serve Liturgy with?

There was an orthopaedic shop nearby. It was Sunday morning and they were having a meeting. Before 10 o’clock I went to the gate.

As they were leaving, I kept telling them to come in for ten minutes, that the priest from the prison was here, and not to celebrate Liturgy alone. About six men, with some reserve, said, “Let’s go!” Two young ladies arrived.

Father began by telling them something about his life, then he talked about his prison, so much so that people were crying as they listened to him. Then he spoke about his intention to rebuild the church. Then the Holy Liturgy began, and before the Gospel was read, Father sent me to bring the “carpet” from the house (the mat on which he slept at Domnița Bălașa’s) to put it in the church so that the ladies could kneel.

– Is that a carpet? they asked.

– Yes, it is, I don’t have any other! Maybe with God’s help we’ll get one!

And the ladies knelt on it.

In the sermon, I remember Father saying:

– If we have a pot full of water and we want to add some more good things, there’s no more room. In the same way, our heart, which is full of bad deeds, if the Good Lord wanted to give us a little grace, there is nowhere else to put it, because the heart is full of bad things. 

Our heart is full of evil. The Saviour comes to us with light, humility, gentleness and patience, but if He does not find a place to sow these inexpressible gifts in us, He leaves, because our heart is full of all that is rotten: hatred, lies, the desires of the body, the greed of the belly and many others.

Thus the poor heart can hardly breathe, for the poor man is always striving to enter hell, for he does not like anything that is good for the soul. He does not seek the nourishment of the soul, which is bound by thousands and thousands of sins.

What shall we do at the fearful Judgment? Only then will we realise what we have done on earth! We must now, while we are on earth, purify ourselves, wash away our sins, for the Most Merciful God is so good and merciful and will forgive us, but only if we repent of what we have done, if we are sorry in our hearts that we have offended God and our neighbour.

And even if we fall into some sin again, we must not despair, but have strong faith and ask for God’s mercy, to get up again and set out on the road to fight sin. Let us not be discouraged, let us not say: “Well, I’ve sinned anyway, I can’t help it, I’m going to go on like this because God won’t forgive me anymore! No, we must not think like that, but get up, wake up and make a good start, hoping for God’s help. Just as the spider hopes and keeps spinning its web, wanting to climb up, and the web breaks and it makes it again, weaves it again, and so it spins the web a thousand times, falls down and gets up again, and does not leave it until it has made its home upstairs, so let us not be carried away by Satan, but let us strive, like the spider, to make our home in heaven, built with good works, with mercy, with kindness, with patience in prayer. With our tears, let us at the same time wash away the little heart that smells so badly and drive out the power of Satan from within us.

If a thief breaks into your house, do you let him plunder everything? Do you not fight to get him out of the house? Then why don’t you fight with Satan to drive him out of your heart and not allow him to nest in it? Renounce evil and overcome Satan through fasting, prayer and charity. These three are the Christian’s most powerful weapons to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Holy Liturgy impressed the people. Those who came told others, and people have been coming ever since. Sometimes Father would call out at random and draw people to the church.

But the numbers were still small. Some wanted to give him money, but he wouldn’t take it, telling them to put it on the window behind the altar. There he would find envelopes of money, because people were attracted by his gentleness, by his grace, and they trusted his prayers.

It was also in those days that Father sent me to buy bread. I didn’t really know the area. On my way to the State Archives, as it was then, I met a man and asked him where the bread centre was. He showed me.

– Look, there it is!

– Let me tell you something! I said.

And I told him about Father, how he came out of prison, how he had no people, but still wanted to repair the church.

– I’ll go too! he replied.

It was Mr. Bartholomew, an accountant in the State Archives. He did indeed go to Father Sârbu and remained a very good collaborator of his, a believer in the Church who helped Father Sârbu in many works.

So God helped Father Sârbu through people who came from all over. And Father prayed for everyone.

I saw that you have some notes of Father’s sermons. Did he ask you to write them down?

From the very first Liturgy he told us to write down everything he said. Also, from the beginning, he made us sign where everyone should sit in the church:

– Here is your place, here is your place!

And so, one at the front, one at the back.

– As soon as you entered the church, he said, “Don’t wander around! Each one of you stay in your place, concentrated in prayer.

Father said that he could feel our hearts beating. During Liturgy he would draw our attention to it:

– Look, the hour is coming, the angels are coming down from heaven. Do you know that the saints on the walls are coming down among you? The paint remains on the walls, but the saints are among you. We do not see them with our physical eyes, but they see us and we must be quiet. There is order in heaven and so it must be with us. Think not of what you have done at home or on the way, think of nothing but the prayer that is being made.

Concentrate, for then you will be filled with grace, faith and health. Have you heard? Be still!

I remember once an old lady came in here with a bag that she kept opening and closing. And every time she closed or opened the bag, there was a noise. It annoyed Father. He came out of the shrine, went up to her and said:

– Lady (he called her by name), give me the bag to take to the altar so that you can have some money!

The lady, very happy, gave the bag and there was silence in the church.

This is how Father Sârbu did it. He knew how to speak to everyone in his own way so as to lead them all to Christ.

Did you go to Father every day?

Yes, every day. I used to leave at night so that the neighbours wouldn’t see me, and I used to come at night. At home I had conversations with Mircea, my husband, and Steluța, my adopted daughter. My mother-in-law was also there. I would cook for them at night and go to church during the day.

I remember the first winter, it was a Sunday or a holiday, there was a lot of snow and the tram didn’t come. I wondered whether I should go and walk in the snow. Finally I set off. When I arrived, tired, I found my father working in the snow. I took the shovel from his hand and prepared the slopes.

Then I went and gave the homily for Holy Liturgy. Father thanked me and gave me a notebook and pencil, telling me again to write down everything I heard from him, “so that it will stay with me”. At the end of Liturgy he counted us, there were seventeen of us, and asked each of us where we were from. We all came from different neighbourhoods. And when he began to speak, he told us:

– Know that it is not by your own strength that you are here, but by the strength of God who sent you. Therefore open your spiritual ears wide that you may hear, and open your hearts that the Word of God may enter into them, for this is the food you seek. You have come a long way, you must not go out as you came in, nor let your toil be in vain. Fill yourselves with the living water, for that is why Jesus sent you here. Wash the cup inside out…

And he told us many other things. He told us to be orderly, not to live with a scattered mind, not to waste time, because time is short. In the morning, when we wake from sleep, let us make the sign of the Holy Cross and say: “Thank you, Lord, that I have seen the light of day; help me, enlighten me, so that I may do only Your will. Then stand up, without letting your body lie down, and as you place your feet on the floor, bend your knees for the prostation, make three times the sign of the cross and say: “I thank you, O Lord, that I have placed my feet on the bed of Your feet. Help me to walk with them today and to do Your will. You say an “Our Father”, get dressed, wash and then say the morning prayers. Then you sit down at the table and write down the plan of the problems you have to solve that day.

And Father also told us that when someone asks us for something, or we make an appointment with someone, or we promise to call at a certain time, then we should keep our word, be punctual and not make people wait in vain, because if we have a scattered mind and forget what we have promised, we can no longer call ourselves Christians. So if we say ‘yes’, let it be ‘yes’, and if we say ‘no’, let it be ‘no’, and let us not say more than that. Let us not swear, for it is a mortal sin.

Father was so determined, so persistent in the problems he solved, that he never gave up and fought to the end. When he set out to do something, he would leave home in the wind, in the rain, in any weather; you would see him take up his staff and set out for the interests of the Church.

What events do you remember from those early years?

The first winter we went there to clear the snow, because Father could not get out of his little room. The following year, after he had covered the church and the parish house with sheet metal, I remember that we brought Nicolae Munteanu, our painter, who came with his wife and painted the parish house.

He also worked on repairing the church walls.

Some time later, the priest called me and said:

– “Cocuțo, we have to start working. We need twenty sacks of cement. I’ve made an application and we’ll show you where to go to get permission.”

I was in a dress, carrying rubble, cleaning up, but I left them all and went with Father and Mr Bartholomew. We went to a ministry where they gave these permits. There was a park outside. Father and Mr Bartholomew sat down on a bench and explained to me how to go up the steps and where the door was that I had to knock on. Mr Bartholomew knew because, as I found out later, he had tried to get permission before but had failed. But I didn’t know at the time that such permission was not given. I went up the stairs and went in. There was a man at the desk to whom I had previously given my application.

– What’s that? Twenty bags? Are you playing?

And he waved me off.

– But what is it? I said. That’s all we need, even more!

He didn’t answer me and went away. But I stayed and God did His work; God helped us. While I was sitting there, a lady came in.

She went to the gentleman’s coat, which was hanging on a peg, went through his pockets, took a paper out of his pocket, put it under her waistcoat and left. I realised it was a robbery and stayed. When the gentleman came back into the office, he looked at me rather grimly:

– Why didn’t you leave? I told you to leave!

– I didn’t leave, but a lady came and took a piece of paper from your coat, from that pocket.

As soon as she heard that, she got scared. She quickly took the stamp, put it two or three times on my application, crossed it out and gave me the paper, and he said:

– Go in peace! Then he ran down the stairs to catch the woman who had taken the paper. When I got downstairs, Father asked me:

– What have you done, Cocuțo?

– God helped us with Your Holiness’ prayers!

Another time we needed sand to repair the church.

 Father (through Mr Cornel) arranged for machines to go to a sand quarry. But we needed men to load the machines. At that time I was sick, my stomach hurt like hell. My husband said to me:

– Go to your father, you’re sick there!

So I went to see my father. Dad came out on the stairs:

– What are you doing, Cocuțo?

– I’ve come to give myself some pills, my stomach hurts, I’m sick. My husband told me I got sick here!

– I know you’re sick. But you take a shovel from the shovels hanging by the door; and here, on this little piece of paper, I’ve written the address where the sand is and where we need people to load the wagon. We need one on one side and one on the other. We don’t have any men!

So I grabbed the shovel by the tail and crawled and crawled I went, address in one hand, shovel in the other. I was angry. Don’t give me any pills!

When I got there, it was Mr Cornel. There was no woman.

Mr Cornel saw that I was walking slowly and said to me:

– Wait a little, maybe it’ll pass before another car comes!

And another one came, but without any men, to reload.

Then I took the shovel and said: “Mother of God, help me, I’m sick!” And when I said that and started throwing the sand into the car, I felt a power inside me. After that I couldn’t stop. I helped the man on the other side.

When Mr Cornel arrived at the church with a row of sand, Father asked him:

– How’s Cocuța?

– He’s helping the man on the other side!

Has a small building site started there?

The biggest work was when the porch was built. First Father did the main repairs to the church and then he started on the porch. In 1965 he didn’t have enough people or money to start the porch. But then, with the money he could raise, he covered the church and the parsonage with tin so that it would stop raining in the church and he could move into the house. But when more people came to work, we had to feed them and we didn’t have what we needed. Then Mrs Viorica, Mr Cornel’s wife, brought an old stove from home and we each brought what we could, potatoes, carrots, eggs, and cooked one at a time. We would set the table outside. Father would say the Lord’s Prayer and then he would say, “Lord Jesus Christ, come to us and bless the house, the table and these dishes, for they all come from you, Father of lights. Once he saw a man not making the sign of the cross. He took him aside, gave him some money and told him that if he didn’t make the sign of the cross, he should go to the restaurant to eat, because here we all make the sign of the cross.

I also remember that Easter was approaching and I stayed at home for a few days to clean and prepare. Without me, everything was dead. Mircea, my husband, told me the same thing:

– You’ll stay for three or four days, don’t go, to put the house in order. Someone else will go!

And I didn’t go. But in the morning, at half past six, Mircea called me:

– “Cocuțo, Father is here for you, go and tell him you’re ill!”

Father Constantine was sitting on a bench in the courtyard. He was looking at the window and tapping the ground with his stick. I went outside and lied:

– Father, don’t be angry, but I’m sick!

– All right, Cocuțo!

And he went away. But as soon as he went out the door, I felt a stabbing sensation, as if I were going to die.

– Mircea, what am I going to do? I followed you, I lied, and now I’m sick to my stomach!

– Go get the father, you’ll get over it! Go, go!

And as soon as I thought about leaving, it didn’t hurt anymore. I went after Father. He knew I was after him, but he didn’t come back. When I reached him, he said:

– What have you done, Cocuțo? Doesn’t your stomach hurt anymore?

I told him… and I went to church.

Another time I went to see Father with a man from our neighbourhood. He was a barber, a thin old man. His wife had died and he kept dreaming that she was saying to him: “Go to confession, Costică, and confess, because when you die you’ll go to hell, and do you know what’s there?

The man often came to our house and always said to me:

– Sister Cocuța, take me to confession!

One day I said to him: Uncle Costică, come tomorrow morning and I’ll go with you!

When I got to the church in the morning, Father said to me:

– What does this man want, Cocuțo?

– Father, he wants to go to confession and he always comes to me, I take him to confession!

– Go to another priest, I’m an old man, was Father’s decision.

But I got angry. After the man left, I said:

– Father, how long has he been teasing me! Why did you refuse him?

– Well, Cocuțo, I’m an old man. He never went to confession. I have to do penance. You don’t know the canon we have for these old people!

Can I do some more mumanas? What about him? Can he? Let him go to a young priest, he will know what to do!

– Father, whatever it is, I’m angry, I’m leaving!

– Go away, cousin!

I went down to the cellar, took my dress and everything else I had, put it in my bag and came home. What do you think I dream about at night? There was an alley down the street to the State Archives and lots and lots of people, two by two, all the way to the church. They were the people who worked there. And there was a big handful of women who took them all and put them in the churchyard. I said to myself: “I’m not going there, I’m upset.” And I didn’t know how to get out so they wouldn’t put me in. I was mean, stubborn. But the woman stretched out such a long hand that she grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me into the church, into the courtyard. Then I told her:

– I’m angry with Father!

– But why are you angry?

– Look, I came with an old man and he didn’t confess!

– You don’t have to be angry, because Father’s suffering made him angry and sick.

– But who are you to enlighten me?

– Do you want to know who I am?

And this hand seemed to take a cloud from the sky and hold it in the palm of its hand, and in the cloud appeared the Mother of God with the Child in her arms and said to me:

– I am the Mother of God. I have healed you during the surgery, I have helped you and I have brought you here through the messenger of my Son. You must help the Father until the work is finished. That’s why I gave you all this, to help him!

The next day I went to church.

Father knew, he was waiting at the gate.

– Come, why are you walking so slowly? he said.

– Because I’m ashamed!

– Tell me, what did you dream?

I told him in detail.

– Don’t be angry!

He put his hand over my neck in a friendly manner and I began to work again.

Sometimes Father took me with him to memorial services. Once we went to some very rich people who gave him a lot of money. When I went in, there was a long, luxurious hall with all kinds of plates and cups. When a lady came in, Father pointed to the cups with his stick and asked:

– What are these?

– Cups for the brandy!

– Come on, Cocuțo, come on, this is a wedding, not a funeral!

The people insisted, they followed us, but Father justified it:

– We don’t do a memorial service with alcohol. Where it is done with alcohol, it is not received in heaven. The devils are turning your table upside down. You don’t believe it, you don’t see with your own eyes. I’m older and can’t do the work you want. Call another priest!

And we were gone.

On the way home, near the church, I stood under a window and heard some young people arguing.

– Let’s go and see them, they’re fighting! Let’s get the devil out of the house!

– How, Father, if they don’t call us, how can we go there?

– Come on, let’s go!

I looked where the door was and went in:

– Hello!

– Good morning!

I wondered how Father was going to start the conversation. But he started right away:

– Why are you fighting? Let’s cast out the devil! Which one of you is evil? Where’s the man you’ve been arguing with?

– Ah, Father… – Bring him here!

When the man came, he looked at them both, for he saw with his spiritual eyes, and said to the woman:

– It’s you! Eve, it’s you! Stop teasing him! Why do you bore him and search him everywhere? Let’s do some work! Do you know how to pray?

The man also made a cross, a little crooked. Father showed him how to do it. They had two little boys. After Liturgy he blessed them, anointed them. Then he said to them:

– Don’t fight anymore! You don’t see, but I saw how many devils were in your house. When you quarrel, the devils come immediately. Let there be peace. You have no icon. I see you have money, because you have good things, but why don’t you have an icon in your house? Father stayed there and sent me to church:

– Go, Cocuțo, get an icon from the attic, the one you want, and give it to these people! I’ll wait for you here.

I went to the loft and got an icon. Father gave it to them and said:

– Worship God! In the morning, when you get up, go out on the doorstep, look at the sky and say:

“Lord, you are there, I am here. Help me today! I don’t know how to do this, I’m a weak man. Take care of me today for my salvation”.

So you have to say and pray!

I was surprised, but I understood. He didn’t give them a prayer book they couldn’t understand. He told them to start according to their strength. And they became believers! They ran after us to tell them what church we were from, so they’d come. The Spirit of God came on them. And you know, these people helped us a lot.

I remember another Easter story. At that time there were groups of troublemakers who went from church to church on the night of the Resurrection, as if to disturb the Holy Liturgy. To prevent this from happening to us, the Father had the faithful stand guard at the gate, because during Liturgy he wanted complete silence both in the church and in the courtyard. Once, on the night of the Resurrection, during Liturgy, he heard arguments at the gate. He immediately left the church to see what was going on. Two drunken men were trying to get in, but the guards wouldn’t let them. Father took them, opened the door and let them in:

– What are you doing, Father, they’re drunk! the Christians said.

But the Father said to them:

– Stay here, for this is the resurrection, and take part!

– We can’t, we’ve eaten! they said.

– It’s all right, all is forgiven now, up to the ninth generation.

But you have to be quiet and not go around the church. We have everyone in his place, no one goes around!

And those people sat quietly, drunk as they were, and prayed and cried and slapped their hands because they were such sinners. Father knew them in the Spirit and wanted to show them that at Easter, whether you eat or not, you can be forgiven, like the thief on the cross. Then those drunkards came to work and worked hard for the church. And they even brought Father food to the window of his cell, because they knew there was no one to cook for him. And he won them over for the Church.

I also remember one time a lady came in who had had an eye operation, but the operation had failed. The woman went blind. Someone had brought her to the Church of Sapienția. The porch wasn’t ready yet. It was the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. She asked someone to take her to the place where the world kisses the Holy Epitaph of Our Lady. She knelt down in front of the table and cried long, long tears, so much so that her tears ran down. The Father saw her, approached her, put his hands on her head and asked her:

– What’s wrong with you? She lifted her head and cried out:

– I see you, Father, I see, I see!

Our Lady gave her sight.

Were you there when this happened?

Sure, I was there, I was in the choir. I was writing the homilies. I also saw the miracle.

Have there been other cases like this?

That’s all I know. But Father knew our thoughts and sometimes what was going to happen. Once I went with my daughter Stella and three other girls from our street. Father was in the yard and asked them:

– What’s wrong, Steluțo?

– We want to go to high school and we came to say a few prayers to get there!

Father stood for a moment, looked up to heaven, put his finger on his temple in concentration, then looked at them and said:

– You will succeed, you will succeed, but you will not succeed!

When she left, the one to whom Father had given the bad news asked:

– How does Father know? I’m clever and I’m ready to go in!

But she didn’t succeed, as Father had said.

To Cristina, the candle girl, he said:

– Why don’t you pray at home?

She replied:

– I pray here!

– But from your house to here, a car could run you over.

You know that death is not good. Do you? Pray before you leave home!

– Father, how do you know?

– None of your business, I know!

Indeed, he knew everything.

He always said the Jesus Prayer. It was posted at the entrance. He always told us:

– Children, we’re not in the monastery, so we will always keep our noses to the grindstone in prayer and worship. We are lay people. If you want to be saved, say the Jesus prayer. You’ve seen the monks with their prayer ropes saying it. We are not monks to walk with them, but we have to put them in our mind and say:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and of Mother of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” But with the mind in the heart. For we have sins, we are full of sins. It makes a little twine: gossip. If we always and say, Satan comes out and melts. But if you interrupt the prayer, he swells up and comes alive, just like the pir, if you don’t pull out the root, it comes back up.

If you say the prayer of the mind all the time, as soon as you go out into the street, it melts. I am talking now, but my heart is praying, because I am used to saying it all the time.

When was the veranda built?

After the main repairs to the church were done. Father was talking to somebody and two tractors came with bricks. And there were the bricks, fresh from the kiln, hot. So many people came to unload them that people were standing side by side passing them from hand to hand.

Everyone’s hands were gloved or tied with rags so they wouldn’t get burnt. Father said:

– Pray, pray, don’t say a word to each other! Pray! Let us give thanks to God and glorify Him!

The men with the tractors had to leave quickly so that no one would know that they had come with this brick. It had been paid for, but without the approval of the authorities. There was a time when no materials were given for churches.

Father then told us to pray that we would find people to start building. And indeed some bearded men came. They were not monks. Father asked them:

– Do you smoke?

When the man replied, “I don’t smoke here,” Father said:

– No, you can’t. If you give it up, yes, otherwise you can’t work here. This is a church, not a house or a hotel!

In spite the shortage of bricklayers, he didn’t take on anyone who smoked.

With the porch, the kitchen was built and the parsonage hall, where the clothes were laid out, was also built. The vicarage consisted only of the room where the office and the bedroom were. A committee came, made a sketch, saw how it looked and Mr Bartholomew took photographs. Father Sârbu added the kitchen. But where the kitchen is now, there was a big tree, a big vinegar tree. I’ll never forget it. I used the joagăr (a two-handed saw) with Mr Constantinescu. We struggled a lot to cut the tree, but in the end I felled it. At night I dreamed that from the heart of the trunk came a long, big-eared, old, human head, which said to me: “I am 115 years old and no one has taken my life. Now you have taken it from me!” And he went back into the stump of the remaining tree. Oh, what an old man he was! I begged everyone to cut it down, and in the end I cut it down myself.

When the construction started, I would get up early in the morning, go to people’s houses and leave the address of the church, and people would come. Father had a great help in Father George: he was clever, hardworking and skilful.

He was also a pain with the church windows. The hoops (the wood in the middle of the glass, in the shape of a cross) were rotten, rotted. You couldn’t hammer in a nail, it wouldn’t go in. We had to make new frames. Father really wanted them to be made of oak, strong wood. He sent people all over to the warehouses, but there was no oak board anywhere. So he said:

– Let’s call Cocuța. She does what she does and she finds it!

And she came to me in Bucureștii Noi and told me not to go to church the next day, but to go and look for planks. Next to me, in Bucureștii Noi, there was a warehouse with planks. I went there, but the answer was the same, that they didn’t have any for sale. As I was leaving, I saw a child whose watch had fallen from his hand and he was crying as he looked for it. I bent down to look for it and saw oak planks below. When I found the child’s watch, I went back and paid my respects to the watchman, but he told me that the oak planks, because they do not rot, were only put there as a bridge to put the pine planks on, and that he could not move the pile.

I rang Father Constantine and he came with people from the church.

He agreed with the man to buy what we needed, then they took the pine planks away, took the oak planks and put the stack back. What a joy for Father!

He was crying with joy!

After the teals were finished, I remember one day I was painting them, me on the outside and a man on the inside. And I don’t know how I spilled the paint. It was a big can and you couldn’t find them very often in those days. I was afraid, afraid of what Dad would do to me. But the man who was painting with me said:

– He says I spilt it!

Not long after that, Father came by:

– What have you done, Cocuța?

I, the sinner that I am, lied that I hadn’t spilt it, but Father said:

– Why did you teach her to lie, man? She spilt it!

Father knew everything.

On Sundays or holidays I used to go to the hospital in the afternoon. Once, I don’t remember why, I went to church. I saw Father Sârbu from a distance, pulling a small cart with wheels behind him. He usually put everything in it. I didn’t show myself, I hid. Father was hiding, he had parcels in it. He went to a courtyard near the church, opened the gate and put all the parcels in. Then he would close the gate and leave. That’s what he did every Sunday afternoon.

(Matilda Mircea (Cocuța) – A great Christian confessor. Preotul Constantin Sârbu, work published by the Diaconești Monastery, 3rd edition, Bonifaciu Publishing House, Bacău, pp. 18-39)