Father Daniil died as a great martyr, who confessed before the pagans the right faith.
Testimony of Father John of Rarău:
What can be said about Fr. Daniil, Hieromonk Daniil Sandu Tudor?
He is one of the greatest of all the Martyrs, a confessor of the true Orthodox faith. Hieromonk Daniil Tudor was a man with a holy, perfect life, a man of study; he was always writing and praying incessantly.
Did you know him?
Yes, I knew him. He was also a man of the Spirit. He had a great love for prayer, for the Mother of God. The hermitage of Rarău, where he was at that time, was very, very, very poor and often there was nothing to eat, absolutely nothing.
“Let’s go and pray to the Mother of God” – he said. He prayed to Our Lady for half an hour and God gave him everything. I know from a great scholar that he had a very great culture, he had a firm, strong faith, he used to fight all the party activists that the Master sent to fight him so that he wouldn’t go to Bucharest to give conferences. He converted them all.
What did he hold conferences on?
He discussed everything, he spoke five or six languages. He gave his whole life to God.
How did he die?
He died in prison. They killed him. He died in agony. He was the most uncompromising of all the prisoners in his faith. He died as a great martyr, confessing the true faith before the pagans. God wants everyone to be firm and steadfast. If a man is not convinced, he will not deal with anything else. When they were convinced of the value of their creed, they suffered. The lives of the saints should be a model for our own lives. God does not like compromise. You are either in the light or in the dark, either with God or with Satan. If you do not defend the right faith, you are not with God. For salvation, truth cannot stand change any more than life can stand death. Life exists not only on earth, but also in eternity, where death is excluded. There is no life on earth, it is a concept, a possibility of acquiring eternal life, through works, that’s all. St. John Chrysostom also says:
“You can obtain both life and death through your works.”
God chooses his people. Now it’s time to sift. Flour, if it is not sifted, is with rubbish, it must be sifted; gold, if it is not tried in the fire, is not purified of foreign matter.
(Fr. Ioan Neagoe – From the dungeons to the Synod)