Father Adrian Făgețeanu – “the serenity full of piety”
Calm and gentle, open-hearted, with a serenity full of piety that no one could shake, light in body, meditative, this is how I met Father Adrian Fagețeanu, monk of Putna Monastery, Ciorogârla and, at the time of writing, of Antim Ivireanul Monastery.
The soft cheeks, of a discreet pallor, suggested the sublime mystery of a special inner beauty. I met him at the Peninsula-Canal labour colony. Originally from Bukovina, his father was a priest.
We became fast friends and bonded forever. He had a law degree and had worked as a police officer before entering the priesthood.
Father Adrian says that during the Holy War for Bessarabia and Bukovina he was concentrated and sent to the battlefield. He was engaged. When our armies retreated, his unit was surrounded at the bend of the Don and he fell seriously wounded. A German plane landed next to him to pick up the wounded. He was also put on the plane. Father had not yet lost consciousness. Clear-headed and in control of his judgement, aware of the serious situation he was in, he considered the landing of the plane to be a miracle, and if he recovered, he decided to live the rest of his days in the Church, serving at the altar, because they were days given to him by God to live in victory, in the service of Christ.
He fell into a coma and woke up ten days later in a hospital in Bucharest. He remembered all the misery he had lived through and his determination. After his complete recovery, he was released and, according to his decision, he went to the monastery.
He will become a priest. His fiancée awaited him with devotion and sent his sister to the convent to tell him that she was waiting for him. The father thanked her for her gesture and the patience with which she had waited for him, asked for forgiveness and said that at a very difficult moment in his life he had made a holy decision and taken a sacred vow that he could no longer break. When he leaves, the fiancée’s brother wants to leave her portrait of his face – a large photograph – to reflect on his return. The father resolutely refused to accept the picture of the girl’s face, for nothing could shake his resolve.[1] These were the circumstances when, dead and resurrected, he decided to put on the monastic habit.
His father had died. When he went to his father’s house to see his mother, dressed in his priestly habit, she looked at him with great joy and said to him: “I am happy for the path you have chosen, and I believe that your father’s soul is rejoicing there in heaven. When he was a young boy, his father suspected him of secretly smoking and reprimanded him with harsh words. The boy was very sensitive at the time and was unjustly accused, so he came into conflict with his father and temporarily distanced himself from the Church. Now there has been a great reconciliation. We discussed a lot with Father Adrian. He told me:
“Brother Petrică, we are living in difficult times with particularly bad consequences. Our persecution is long. We Legionaries have been through all the storms. Many comrades and young men have gone to their eternal rest. Today, the Church of Christ is torn from the bosom of its ancestors. Man is being lifted up, he has no personality, no will, he is being driven out of his natural temperament. Little by little, we are drifting into the abyss of the great annihilation of all that once was, the dismantling and defiling of the altar”.
When he wanted to know my opinion of someone who wanted to join us, he would say to me: “Brother Petrică, what can you tell me about this man, do you know him? But give me the answer quickly, because the first thought comes from God, and then comes humanism and subjectivism”. Then came the time of parting. I left for unknown places at the head of Midia, while Father remained on the peninsula. Since then, one certainty has been in my heart: whenever darkness comes upon man, God comes to his aid. Father Adrian was a dear messenger. From the great richness of his heart and his great wisdom I was enriched with new spiritual strength for future struggles.
(Petru Baciu, Hidden Crucifixions: Testimonies, Vol. I, pp. 274-276)
[1] “So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.“. (Mark 10: 29-30)