Father Arsenios Boca – a servant of the Lord, a servant for the people

At many moments in the history of Christianity we find fathers whom God has endowed with the grace of loving humanity, as our Saviour urges us to do. Out of love for his creation, God has given people spiritual models to guide the faithful on the Good Way. One such model is Father Arsenios Boca.

The case of Father Arsenios is famous. But how famous is another matter. As the archives are unearthed and researched, we are getting a clearer picture of this important case in the history of Romanian monasticism.

Below are some illustrative passages from a forthcoming book. Our project is based on unpublished sources from the archives of the former Securitate and aims to make a small contribution to a more serious knowledge of what the Arsenios Boca phenomenon was in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Father Arsenios Boca was born on 29 September 1910 in Vața de Sus, Hunedoara County. He attended the National Orthodox High School “Avram Iancu” in Brad, graduating in 1929, and then the Theological Academy in Sibiu until 1933. With a scholarship offered by the Metropolitan of Ardeal, he attended the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, where he studied medicine under Professor Francisc Rainer and Christian mysticism under Nichifor Crainic. On this occasion, Professor Costin Petrescu entrusted him with the painting of the scene representing Michael the Brave in the Romanian Athenaeum. His archpriest sent him to Mount Athos for a spiritual experience, but also for documentation. On 29 September 1935, he was ordained a celibate deacon by Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan, and on the Friday of the Spring of Healing in 1940, he was ordained a monk in the Sâmbăta de Sus Monastery.

Monasticism in Țara Făgărașului

After the Act of 1918, among the other religious problems that arose in the new political situation, there was the problem of monasticism. The Romanian Orthodox Church had to rise to the height demanded by the faithful. Monasticism had to recover and regain the prestige of the past. In the case of the Archdiocese of Sibiu, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan wanted to rebuild the monastery founded by the great ruler Constantine Brâncoveanu, which had been abandoned after the anti-Orthodox armed action led by Bukov in the 18th century. At the same time, the same hierarch was aware of the need to gather monks with higher (especially theological) education.

After 1928, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan began to build a monastic centre in Sâmbăta de Sus, made up of elite, well-educated and spiritually strengthened people, probably in order to start a monastic nursery for his entire diocese. And this was achieved. Indeed, in 1940 the Siberian press reported the “moving and touching monastic tonsure” of Deacon Zian Boca, one of the “enlightened graduates of the Andreian Academy”. In fact, only theologians from Sibiu came to the monastery of Fagărăș, encouraged by Archbishop Nicolae and eager to discover the spiritual treasure of Orthodoxy. In addition to the authentic life of Fr. Arsenios, which gave him the halo of a man of God, so sought after by multitudes of the faithful, there was also the support of the Archbishop, who celebrated great Masses with calls to all the faithful of the diocese on every great feast.

This is the case of some feasts celebrated after 1940 with great splendour and with the participation of impressive crowds of faithful, to which were added the problems of the war against the Romanian side, a situation which led to the celebration of special services for peace. This was the case, for example, on the Friday of the Spring of Resurrection in 1940, when Holy Mass was celebrated by His Eminence Nicolae Bălan, Metropolitan of Ardeal, and His Eminence Nicolae Colan, Bishop of Vad, Feleac and Cluj, during which the deacon Zian Boca received his monastic tonsured, taking the name of Arsenios, with the participation of an impressive number of faithful. On this occasion, the chronicler highlighted the tragic fate of the Brancovian monastery in the face of the Greek-Catholic proselytism of the 18th century in the Transylvanian area, added to by the Austrian military offensive. He did not hesitate to mention the Orthodox truthfulness in the religious act and the Orthodox rights in this Christian space. Through these statements, in conjunction with the position of Metropolitan Bălan towards Greek Catholicism, expressed since his enthronement on the throne of Sibiu, but also through the subsequent actions of Fr. Arsenios after 1948 in the former Greek Catholic Transylvanian area, we can argue that the initiative of the Orthodox Archbishop, of the Orthodox monastic revival, was part of his general offensive to recover the entire area under his archbishopric for Orthodoxy. The monastery, whose founder had been a great supporter of Orthodoxy, especially through his monastery in the Olt region, was to be an important pillar on the road to restoring the Greek Catholics to the right faith.

Subsequently, the Archpriest’s feasts continued to be held on an increasingly large scale. The Metropolitanate of Sibiu had previously called its faithful to the services to be celebrated on Saturday. Thus, the faithful had the opportunity to taste the majesty of the services celebrated by a choir of priests led by the Metropolitan, such as the one on the Friday before Palm Sunday (10 April) in 1942. The newspaper “Telegraful Român”, the widely circulated diocesan newspaper of Sibiu, announced the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Unction, as well as a programme of confessions with priests appointed for this purpose, if the faithful had not done so in their own parishes, and Communion at the end of Holy Mass on Sunday, celebrated by Metropolitan Nicolae at the head of a choir of priests. The pilgrims from distant countries were given shelter and all the necessities in the surrounding parishes, and the priests of the dioceses of Făgăraș, Avrig and Olt took part in the pilgrimage at the head of the faithful, proceeding according to the archpriestly dispositions. The members of the “Lord’s Army” were called to this pilgrimage, who were also in charge of the peddling. On this occasion, the hierodeacon Arsenios Boca was ordained a priest and the newly graduated theologian Vasile Șortan was ordained a deacon, which made the religious moment a very spiritual experience.

The “Saturday Movement” (so called because of the spiritual importance it had acquired) was to welcome Marshal Ion Antonescu and his wife on the Feast of Pentecost in 1942, where the Metropolitan served with the monks. On the Feast of the Holy Apostles (29 June 1944), the Metropolitan was to lead a choir composed of Protosinghel Ieronim Grovu, Metropolitan Councillor, Fr. Traian Ciocănelea, from the parish of Făgăraș, Hieromonks Arsenios Boca and Serafim Popescu and Deacon Nicolae Mladin, professor of theology at Sibiu, with the participation of 3000 faithful.

In addition to spiritual experience, the Orthodox Centre in Sâmbăta was also intended to be a centre for the rediscovery and promotion of the spiritual values that Orthodoxy has accumulated throughout history. It is the translation and publication of the most exemplary spiritual experiences collected in the famous work called Philocalia. On his trip to Mount Athos, Father Arsenios Boca brought Father Dumitru Stăniloae several manuscripts of these invaluable spiritual sources. He also collaborated in the translation and editing of the first four volumes of this series, published between 1946 and 1948. In the preface to the second volume, Professor Dumitru Stăniloae himself said that “the decisive help in the printing of this volume came from my good former student, Father Hieromonk Arsenios of the Brâncoveanu Monastery. Thanks to the massive subscriptions, I was able to prevail against massive drawbacks encountered in the process of printing this volume. Without a doubt, his Holiness can rightly be called the main founder of the Romanian Filocalia. After the constant encouragement he gave me in the translation of this work, he now supports the printing work with untiring energy. If God wills that the whole work be published in Romanian, this act will remain linked to a great extent to the name of his Holiness and to the religious movement that he created around the monastery of Sâmbăta de Sus, on the most authentic bases and with the means of the purest spirituality, of persevering teaching and of love for souls”.

When the people sought a confessor

In an informative note dated 4 February 1964, written by the agent “Iulian Nicoară” of the M.I.A. Sibiu, it is said about Father Arsenios Boca: “He led an extremely austere life and subjected himself to a rigorous asceticism, imposing it on all the monks and faithful who went to the monastery. He ate very little, only vegetables. He slept on the floor and prayed incessantly, spending hours on his knees in prayer. Then he began to preach and confess to the faithful who came to him. Both in preaching and in confession, he was severe, harsh with people’s faults and sins.

He was an extremist, rigorous and exaggerated in his demands for a pure life, fasting, prayer, abstinence, spiritualism. He began to dig a cell for himself in the rock of the mountain, at a great height, where he wanted to withdraw and live isolated from the world. His physical structure was not very strong – he was always weak, pale, anaemic – and he fell ill with chest pains. The doctors forbade him from fasting and recommended diet and rest.

His reputation as an austere monk, a man of God, had spread to the ends of the earth. People flocked to him […] It was wartime. There was much pain, trouble and suffering. Peasants and intellectuals came by the hundreds, by the thousands from all over to see him, to hear him, to talk to the “Saint” of Sâmbăta”.

For this reason, many of the faithful, including those who wished to confess their political ideals, sought him out, as we learn from the statement given to the Securitate on 16 June 1948: “A few years after I became a monk and entered the priesthood, something happened to me that I did not expect: a great influence among the people, a fame as a preacher and priest […]. Among the penitent pilgrims who come to the monastery to confess their sins and reconcile their consciences with Christianity, there are many legionnaires”. This situation prompted the Securitate to launch an investigation into Father Arsenios.

Father Arsenios was also investigated for possible links with the Legionnaries, according to a statement he made to the Securitate on 10 June 1948: “In the past and at present, I have not been enrolled in any political group, I have not been active in any way, nor have I contributed as a sympathiser. As proof that I have not been a Legionary sympathiser, I can say that, although I am a book lover, I have never bought or read any Legionary publications. I have devoted myself exclusively to the proclamation of religion. Because I have dedicated my whole life to Christianity and therefore to taking the priesthood seriously, I have made a name for myself as such. Many people came to align their souls with Christianity. Legionaries also came. As a priest, I had to welcome them and talk to them. A priest talks to all kinds of people. My priestly attitude towards them was as follows: I forced myself to depoliticise them with all my might, understanding by this what made them throw down their guns: revenge, conspiracy, subversion, the oath of tacit or manifest reactionism against the established rule. I believe that many have understood me and, having abandoned their false positions, have returned to the Christianity that does not quarrel with the master […]. I preached to them the way of reconciliation with God, in the sense of reconciliation] with man and therefore also with the current state leadership”.

During the investigation of 11 October 1955, Nichifor Crainic, who was asked to give information about Father Arsenios Boca, said that he was “a person of real spiritual value, who had become very well known in the Ardeal region by his personal, rigorously moral life, by his sermons of great power of influence on souls and by a penetrating art of clarifying states of religious psychology and of giving spiritual advice […]”. In a short time the monastery of Sâmbăta de Sus became a place of religious pilgrimage, hundreds and thousands of people came to listen to Father Arsenios. Until 1945, a date after which I know nothing, the movement at Sâmbăta de Sus had a purely religious character, without any political involvement”.

Famous as he was, sought after by all those who thirst for the source of the truth of the faith, Father Arsenios Boca was invited by the nuns of the monastery of Bistrița-Vâlcea to “visit from time to time our convent of nuns for the edification of the soul”, as the Mother Superior, Olga Gologan, said in an address to the Metropolitan Nifon of Oltenia on 10 November 1944. The request for a blessing was granted by Nifon of Oltenia on 14 November 1944, so that on 24 November Mother Olga Gologan asked Metropolitan Nicolae of Ardeal to bless the temporary arrival of Father Arsenios at Bistrița Monastery. Father Arsenios’ spiritual visit to Bistrița was interpreted by the Securitate organs as “subversive political activity” and he was arrested together with the monk Ieronim Ștefan.

Father Arsenios Boca was also requested in the summer of 1947 by Princess Ileana of Habsburg, who “came for the first time to the monastery of Sâmbăta de Sus and on that occasion I met her personally”, as our father said in the criminal investigation of 5 October 1955. “She had come,” he continued, “to get to know the convent, to get to know me and to listen to my sermons. After meeting her personally, I took her to the Metropolitan’s apartment and I remember that she liked the layout of the monastery and the landscape. During our conversation she expressed her wish that I should visit Bran Castle, where she lived. I replied that I could not go there without Metropolitan Balan’s permission.

Having received the blessing of the Metropolitan of Transylvania, Nicolae Bălan, Princess Ileana invited him to Bran on several occasions, as she also visited him several times at the Sâmbăta Monastery. In Bran, says the priest, “I gave sermons of a religious nature to Princess Ileana and to some ladies who belonged to the Princess’s entourage, but I do not know their names]. The sisters from the hospital, doctors and pharmacists also came to my sermons…].

Queen Helena also came to the Bran Castle, accompanied, I think, by her ladies-in-waiting. I also met Queen Elena; I had personal talks with her, but very little, talks limited to the state of her health. I had no other discussions with her and…].

Other concerns I had at the Bran Castle, apart from preaching, were translating parts of the Scriptures and answering various questions that were put to me about the faith. Together with the parish priest of Bran, Lascu, I celebrated the laying of the foundation stone of the chapel in the courtyard of the hospital in Bran.

In addition to spiritual matters, I visited Mrs. Ileana in her home, where I also had conversations with her. I remember that we talked about the death of Zelea Codreanu, and she told me that she sympathised with him and regretted his death, which was caused by her brother Charles II, expressing the following words “Romania is the only country where success doesn’t have success”. She referred to the success that Codreanu had, but which did not lead to success, and she blamed Carol II for this.

The same father accompanied the princess to various places in Bucharest where various acquaintances were ill, including Maria Antonescu and the Marshal’s mother. The following sequence, as reported by Father Boca during the investigation in 1955, is noteworthy: “In the conversations that took place there, I know that Maria complained that she was having a hard time, that she had been abandoned by all her acquaintances and had nothing to live on, and Ion Antonescu’s mother said that she could not reconcile herself with her conscience: “How God gave them (she was referring to the current leadership of the P.R.R.) the opportunity to kill her son”.

I advised her not to rebel against God, because He knows what He is doing, and I referred her to the priest Gala Galaction as her confessor, which I don’t know if he was or not”. The meetings with Princess Ileana continued until November 1947.

In the monastery of Prislop, as a confessor, he was to be visited by many of the faithful. According to an address from the Hațeg Security Office to the Hunedoara – Deva county Securitate, dated 9 August 1950, it reads “We have established that on 24 June 1950, the feast of St. John the Baptist, n.n. ANP], many people from the regions of Brașov, Alba-Iulia and Sibiu came to this monastery to pray. Similarly, on 4 August 1950, the eve of the Feast of the Transfiguration, n.n., ANP], about 30 men and women from Sibiu county went to the monastery.

On the same day, another group of about 20 men and women from Bradului, Hunedoara County, arrived at the monastery. It is observed daily that such groups, especially women, pass through this monastery, attracted by the priest Arsenios Boca […] and is sought daily by people from Brasov, Sibiu, Făgăraș and Bucharest, whose visits under the pretext of faith (confession), which are prolonged 3-7 days and even several weeks, seem very suspicious”.

The authorities, panicked by the huge number of pilgrims, decided to curb the phenomenon by arresting the person sought for spiritual guidance.

“Love the priests now, while you still have them!”

From 1943 to 23 August 1944, in the context of the constant search by the government, but also by intellectuals and opposition politicians, for a way out of the war by means of a separate peace, Father Arsenios was followed by the secret service of the Gendarmerie and Securitate. Specifically, at the beginning of 1944, the Metropolitanate of Ardeal organised “a series of religious missions, with the help of the most eminent monk of the Brâncovenești Monastery in Sâmbăta de Sus, Făgăraș, namely Arsenios Boca. The first mission of this kind took place on Sunday 30 January 1944 – the Feast of the Three Hierarchs, n.n.] in Săliște, and will then follow in Sibiu and in the Hârtibaci Valley. From the sermons of the aforementioned one can see that] the world is making a serious accusation against Germany, which would have risen up with war against the ordinances of nature and God”. The action was encouraged and popularised by the Church through the rural publication “Light of the Villages”. The prayers, initiated by Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan together with Father Arsenie Boca, continued on 20 February in Sibiu, where, according to an informative note, the cathedral “was transformed into a place of pilgrimage, as it proved too small for the large number of believers and ‘soldiers of the Lord’ who came from different parts of Transylvania to listen to the sermons of the monk Arsenios Boca”.

After the events of 23 August 1944, Father Boca was again persecuted, this time by the Communist Securitate, on the basis of documents incriminating him of “legionary activity”. More precisely, as part of the campaign to purge the state apparatus of “legionary and fascist elements”, an action that also reached the Romanian Orthodox Church, the monks Arsenios Boca and Ieronim Ștefan of the Sâmbăta monastery, who were in the Bistrița Vâlcea monastery, were arrested on the express order of the Minister of Religious Affairs, the priest Constantin Burducea. For what reason? It is not mentioned in the address of the Râmnicu Vâlcea Security to the General Directorate of Police-Security, dated 23 July 1945. But we can argue that it was because of the suspicion of “legionary activity at the Bistrița monastery”, as stated in the report of Commissioner Filip Nicolae, head of the Râmnicu-Vâlcea Security, dated July 1945: “With regard to the political activity in the Bistrița monastery], we can make the assumption (sub. ns ANP), based on a more than provable truth, that in this monastery there still exists an atmosphere of obvious sympathy for the Legionnaires’ movement, all the more so as this was the place where ex-Marshal Antonescu was interned, who in his time was often visited by the torch-bearers and promoters of Nazi and Legionnaires’ politics, They knew how to leave deep traces and memories that cannot easily disappear, except by a complete separation of those who in the past passed through these places, otherwise the germ that leads to our political destruction and undermining will find here a weak ground and conducive to its development”.

The presence of our priest in Bistrița, according to the same commissioner, was as follows: “The arrival of the monk Arsenios Boca through these places, although it is not proven (underlined by the ANP) with material evidence that it could be linked to any subversive political activity, but as we have shown, our assumptions, based on political realities, cannot be denied. It is true that the aforementioned person was often visited by many young people (students) and young officers, and in the monastery of Sâmbăta he was in close contact with young people who had ideas and links with the Manichean circles”. Nevertheless, he concludes that “Hieromonk Boca never manifested any political creed in his sermons, an aspect that was also observed after his sermon in the monastery of Horezu”.

In other words, because of Father Boca’s popularity and the fact that he had been called to a “legionary” monastery, the Securitate authorities considered the possibility of a large-scale legionary demonstration, in a context in which they were trying to prevent any legionary initiative.

The date of Father Boca’s arrest does not appear in the criminal file, but we learn that he and the monk Ieronim Ștefan were handed over to the DGP-Security by the Râmnicu Vâlcea Security on 23 July. Thus, on 25 July, the head of the General Security ordered “the completion of the investigation and a situation report”. The files of the Asylum, Security and telephone records will be requested through the respective police, ss/Cernăianu”. Around 30 July 1945, the two were to be released from the General Security prison by order of the Minister of the Interior.

According to the documents we have consulted, the two monks arrested in Râmnicu-Vâlcea gave two statements in the form of autobiographies, dated 17 July 1945, in which they described in general terms their lives up to the time of their arrest. Father Boca spoke of what had led him to worship, clearly stating that he was not a member of the Legionaries, but above all of his monastic way of life, which had made him famous and in great demand. The second monk, Ieronim Ștefan, although he had also been encouraged by Legionaries to join and manifest the Legionary spirit, declared that he did not want to get involved in politics and finally chose monastic life at Sâmbăta de Sus.

In the same way, the arrest of Father Boca, suspected of “legionary activity” since 1943, and his presence in the monastery of Bistrița must be seen in the context of the events that took place after 23 August 1944. According to Article 15 of the Armistice Agreement signed by the Romanian State in Moscow, “fascist organisations” were banned. This was done. In this regard, we have the circular order no. 23.987 of 22 December 1944, issued by the Minister of the Internal Affairs, which ordered the arrest of those “who belonged to the former legionary movement” or were sympathetic to it.

To the eternal rest

The last act of persecution by the Securitate against Father Arsenios Boca, which we have found in the file of informative persecution, lasts from 5 February 1975 to 29 September 1989, with many interruptions. The first document found is an address from the Bucharest Security Inspectorate to the Special Unit “S”, asking for data on “persons with whom he has relations in the line of the Orthodox cult in the capital and the province”. If they meet, please inform us in advance so that we can take the necessary measures”. The matter was followed up by Captain Simion Gheorghe with the code 111/SG, i.e. from the 1st Directorate – Internal Intelligence, the Orthodox cult matter. This was probably the result of a report or clarification about Father Boca in an intelligence note from the security work carried out in Orthodox circles in Bucharest.

It is only on 3 September 1975 that we have intelligence in the note of the source “Barbu”, when he was instructed by the liaison officer to visit the painting site of the church of Drăgănescu (today the town of Mihăilești, Ilfov County), where Father Boca worked. However, he could not find him because he was on holiday. This document is not part of an organised work, but it is an incidental one, a case that later, in the informer’s surveillance opened against Father Boca in the 1980s, was to constitute evidential material in the prosecution. This testimony is supported by several documents that were issued later and that are simple security checks collected by the officer who had to follow him during the years of the last communist decade.

Other documents appear in 1984. They are two informative notes given by the informer “Tâmplaru Ion” to Major Cocârlea Constantin of the Sinaia Security, in which he talks about the new situation of Father Arsenios Boca – his retirement from the activity of church painter, due to his age and health, in Sinaia, the pension granted by the Romanian Patriarchate, and about the former nuns he meets. There are some interesting details in these two documents. In the dialogue between the father and the informer, reference is made to the period of imprisonment, where “Tâmplaru Ion” says: “He was also investigated by the Soviet security, but was not found guilty”, a point I have not found elsewhere. He also talks about his daily life: “He did not receive or make visits, as he had no relatives in Sinaia. Sometimes he goes for walks in the area with the former nuns. Every month he goes to Bucharest to collect his pension from the Patriarchate, but he intends to transfer his pension to Sinaia”. A final point concerns the instructions given by the liaison officer to the informant. In the first note, dated 4 June 1984, he was instructed to “find out if he has inappropriate and legionary literature in his home; the journeys he makes and their purpose; the comments he makes on relations with various priests; if he has a role in meeting and coordinating the activities of the 12 nuns with whom he lives”.

On 8 January 1985, the report with the proposal for the informative supervision of Father Arsenie Boca was approved. The initiative was to “determine the present position and activity of the former Legionary”. The measures proposed were “Direction of the search “Florea” and “Tâmplaru” with the tasks of establishing the present position and behaviour of the relations he has and their nature […]; carrying out investigations at home in order to establish the concerns of the relations and their nature […]; periodic contact for the purpose of discouragement and positive influence; measures along the lines of gr. “S” Sinaia”. The period was between 30 September and 30 December 1989.

Who was the Securitate really after? A father who had been persecuted by the political police for most of his life, a man who, in February 1988, had suffered paralysis of the face and left leg and a heart attack for which he had been hospitalised in Bucharest, a servant of God who could no longer say his prayers.

Nevertheless, the officer Cocârlea Constantin reported to his superiors that he had visited him on 10 April 1989 “to verify the data provided by the informer ‘Tâmplaru'”, where he found him: “I tried to talk to him, but I could hardly communicate with him, because he has a facial expression and it is difficult to perceive what he wants to say”. And there were also notes, such as the one from “Florea Gh” of 28 September 1989, in which he said: “Those close to him are worried about his health and have made the necessary preparations for the situation in which he would die”.

On 29 September 1989, the head of Securitate, Cocârlea Constantin, proposed that Father Arsenios Boca be removed from surveillance. He based his initiative on the following criteria “It is clear from the measures taken that he does not carry out any hostile activity against our socialist order and does not maintain relations with elements under surveillance. At present he is seriously ill, bedridden and no longer of interest to state security […] and remains in the files of the Securitate”. The request was approved on 7 October 1989.

On 28 November 1989, Father Arsenios Boca was declared a just man. He was proclaimed on 4 December 1989 in the monastery of Prislop, in the presence of an impressive crowd of people who came to pay their respects.

Conclusions

After this historical overview, let us try to draw some conclusions about the Great Confessor. From the very beginning, we have noticed the willingness of the Romanian media, regardless of the historical period or the political regime, to accuse Father Boca of being active in the Legionary Movement.

From the beginning, in those troubled times when Romania was undergoing significant political changes, Father Boca tried to prevent the politicisation of the religious life that was being built up in the Brâncoveanu monastery. However, his desire to prevent this led him to be accused of what he was trying to avoid. Then, with the arrival of the Soviet regime, the new “democrats”, as part of the general plan to reduce religious life in Romania, brought the Father to the scene of the Legionary activity, accusing him of collaborating with the Legionary leaders. In fact, since this is the key to the problem in the case of this priest and can serve as a model for other situations, the political powers feared that a group of Christian believers was being formed under the leadership of a confessor who could be manipulated against the security of the state. Such religious movements dressed in Legionary garb – which in the case of Father Boca could not be proven, but was believed – and then his association with resistance groups in the mountains, were seen by the political powers as an attack on national security. As Mother Zamfira Constantinescu tells us: “Father Boca was always investigated because of his popularity, because it was suspected that where there is a gathering of people, there must be incitement”.

Moreover, the spiritual holidays that students took after 1946 at Father Boca’s Saturday were a danger to the Communists’ future intentions for the younger generation, educating them in the socialist spirit and building the “new man”.

Among the ideas of Father Boca that we have found in the documents we have consulted, we can highlight the one concerning the relationship between the State and the Church, especially during the period in which he suffered the most. In this regard, we quote a passage from a note written by “Rafael” on 22 June 1967: “I have never done politics and I will never do it. I will obey and respect the laws of the land, and I will give you an example from the Bible, when the Jews came to Jesus with a coin bearing the image of the emperor, and wanted to see what was written on it. Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”. As for communism, the informer told him: “He told me that he wished with all his heart that those in the skycrapers would come down and think more from the ground level. I told him that if the Communists were to take over the whole world, the Church would be abolished in time”.

In 1976, while painting the church of Dragănescu, the same Father Boca said to the informer “Vicol Tatiana”: “Today’s leaders do not need monasteries. They have left some historical monasteries and that’s all. They will come to cover the whole earth and rule the world. Until then we will be fine. Then we will see who is a true Christian, who will endure everything. Who will not fall into the wave of the world.

I said: I don’t think they will come to take over the whole world, especially since they are people without faith. Fr. Arsenios Boca replied: “They are allowed by God and He is helping them to take possession of the whole earth […]. Don’t treat them badly, but be faithful, because God is everywhere, as in Jerusalem, as in us. For the church in our hearts no one can tear down.

I said: “After the dissolution of the convent, some nuns came here to see me and someone betrayed me and I was called to the party where I was warned.

He replied: ‘800 pages have been written about him. But now who knows how many. There must be over 1,000. You should know that there are stalkers who are sent to hunt us down. But God demands deeds and souls from us, that’s all. We must be stripped of everything and have only God in our hearts”.

It is worth noting here the Father’s conception of the religious life of the monks after their forced expulsion from the monasteries. It is possible to observe an adaptation of the former monks to the conditions imposed by the communist regime, namely the refuge in the heart, to an interior, permanent spiritual life imposed by the new political conditions. We believe that this is the only way to complete this journey in the life of a man, a servant of the people, a servant who obeyed God’s command.

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Rost Magazine, no. 20, October 2004)