Father Benedict – a perfect icon of the Romanian Orthodox monk

Around 1943-44, I was in the Antim Monastery in Bucharest when a young archimandrite arrived who was said to have studied brilliantly in the West, in Strasbourg, and was now in a hurry to defend his doctorate in theology at the University of Bucharest. He was Father Benedict Ghiuș.

Of medium height, with a light beard, modestly dressed, he regularly attended the services of the Antimus Oblate community. He played the pew, had a melodious, warm voice and a way of singing that attracted attention. Even the simple responses to the ecumenical : “Lord have mercy”, “Lord give”, he sang with an intonation that showed piety and humility.

The service at the Holy Altar was captivating. It kept you attentive and filled you with piety, and Father Benedict’s homilies moved you deeply. With the beauty of his words, with his penetrating expression, with the depth of his theological and spiritual reflection. I was struck by the theology of his homily on the Sunday of the Last Judgement: “We would be mistaken,” he said, “if, seeing how highly God values charity, we thought that all other good works – martyrdom, prayer, the pursuit of virtue – would be overlooked. Everything will be rewarded: deeds, words, thoughts. But in the great esteem in which such simple acts are held, there is a secret of the great love of God and of man. This is the lowest price of salvation that is asked of man, so that there will be no man left in the world who will say that he could not be saved, knowing that there is no man on earth who could not do such deeds of mercy”.

Such a presence could not go unnoticed. Antim’s followers, the intellectual world of Bucharest and especially the young university students sought him out for spiritual advice. He was a prominent figure in the Burning Bush movement. A close collaborator of Father Daniil (Sandu Tudor), friend and confessor of the family of the university professor Alexandru Mironescu, spiritual father of the much-destroyed young man – later university professor – Andrei Scrima. Naturally, the leadership of the Orthodox Church sought to make full use of Father Benedict’s personality. He was a priest and preacher at the Patriarchal Cathedral, a pre-university assistant to Father Stăniloae at the Department of Asceticism and Mysticism at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, a Patriarchal Vicar, an elected Bishop of the Diocese of Hotin and a professor at the monastic seminary of the Neamt Monastery.

But in a time of communist rule, the person of Father Benedict seemed like a foreign body, like a stumbling block. He was not to the liking of the majors of the time, his politics were the politics of the Holy Church. He could have been an emeritus professor of theology, but he was prevented; he could have been a bishop or a metropolitan, but he was stopped.

One afternoon we were together in the Chancellery of the Holy Synod in the monastery of Antim when a hurried car came and picked up Father Benedict and took him to the Patriarchate, to the House of Deputies, where he had been elected Bishop of Hotin by a majority of votes. He thanked the electorate, who cheered him unceasingly, only to be stunned the next day when they learned of Father Benedict’s resignation, imposed by the government.

Father Benedict had not made a career as a parish priest. Such a person could not stay and work in the capital. He was sent to teach at the monastic seminary of Neamț Monastery. His former students from Neamț, some of whom became bishops, remember him with admiration and are proud to have had Father Benedict as their teacher. In this capacity, in the course on the practice of monastic life, Father Benedict wrote a true guide for the reorganisation of monastic life, a course that deserves to be made known to Romanian monasticism of our time.

“The whole of monastic life – says the above treatise – is obedience and prayer, prayer and obedience. The times of crisis in monasticism are a matter of prayer and obedience. Therefore, the restoration of monasticism lies in returning to the foundation of these principles of monastic life”.

Father Benedict is also credited, together with Fathers Daniil and Andrei, with compiling the best rules of monastic life, which were approved and printed during the time of Patriarch Justinian. In addition to his lessons at the seminary, on Sundays and feast days, Father Benedict also preached in the great church of Nuremberg and was regularly asked by the rectory of the monastery to deliver a word of spiritual teaching to the monastery fathers at the meetings after Sunday vespers, a word much awaited and appreciated by the monastery fraternity.

Then came the time of severe trials. After five years of hard imprisonment, Father Benedict returned for a while as a minister in the Patriarchal Cathedral, from where he retired to the convent of St. Hierarch Calinic of Cernica, where he continued his work as a tried confessor, but above all he prepared himself for the great journey to meet the Lord Christ, whom he loved with all his heart and served with total dedication.

He remained in my memory as a perfect icon of the Romanian Orthodox monk. St. Maximus the Confessor teaches that two things are absolutely necessary for spiritual perfection: knowledge and spiritual action. Father Benedict had both in full: high theological and spiritual knowledge, but also spiritual life in piety, love and humility..

(Pr. Petroniu Tănase – Icoane smerite din Sfânta Ortodoxie românească, Byzantine Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003, pp. 41-45)