“Father Eugen Berza was a flame that burned and was consumed for man and his salvation”
On 15 August 1996, Father Eugen Berza entered into eternity. On this holy day of the “Assumption of the Mother of God”, God, sending his angels, raised his weeping soul to heaven, healing the pains of his tormented body, torn by the cruel “red” lead. […]
Few people know about Father Eugen Berza’s struggle – the struggle of the nation to save its national being threatened with destruction. We do not know the truth because it has been hidden from us, yesterday and today, because then as now, lies, transgression and hatred reigned, hatred against the truth and its servants. And today these servants are being dragged on the wheel of infamy.
In a world of evil, of terror and organised (state) crime, Father Eugen Berza not only preserved his purity of heart and soul, but he fought with a weapon in his hand against the Bolshevik invaders, for the defence of the ancestral land and the ancestral law – the Church of Christ. In this unequal struggle against a treacherous and murderous enemy, Father Eugen Berza was captured in the mountains, at Uturea-Solonț, Jud. Surrounded, the criminal secret police placed two comrades in front of him as human shields. In this situation, Father Eugen Berza’s combat team could no longer defend themselves against the killing of their comrades and opted for captivity. Thus began his dark ordeal and his drama. He was subjected to harsh and bloody interrogations, systematically beaten on the lungs, soles, liver and testicles, tortured to the point of semi-deafness, then brought back to life by throwing buckets of water over his mutilated body, then subjected to electric shocks by cruel and vengeful interrogators, strangers to the nation and murderers of God. In these workshops of death, Father Eugen Berza often saw his end, even wished for it when his patience ran out (and even tried to provoke it by cutting the veins in his hands). The black pilgrimage of the prisons followed. Like all the Romanian students in prison, Father Eugen Berza had the tragic fate of passing through the most cruel prisons. He experienced the drama of the prisons of Pitești and Gherla, then he was lowered into the depths of the earth in the lead mines of Cavnic and Baia-Sprie, where he worked and laboured for more than three years. Father Eugen Berza was a flame that burned and burned for man and his salvation. He was not afraid of death. […]
Father Eugen Berza accepted and stoically carried his cross and that of his nation. The Romanian nation was born Christian. Its history has always been written on a wheel, and its aspirations have only been fulfilled through sacrifice, martyrdom and crucifixion. “The country burns with graves like the sky with candles,” said the legionary martyr poet Radu Gyr in verse. […]
Father Eugen Berza also passed through the dreaded Aiud prison, the dungeon of great Romanian sufferings. It was here that the elite of the nation and the head of the Romanian army were decimated. Instead of the Romanian tricolour, the communists hoisted the red cloth with the hammer and sickle, the sign of murder, the sign of the apocalyptic beast. In the midst of this evil attack on humanity, of physical and moral destruction, Father Eugen Berza maintained a purity of soul that we find only in saints, impressing the same high spirit on those around him, earning their respect and admiration. Father Berza spent the best years of his youth (over 17) in prison. He did not regret it, he did not deny his convictions, he did not renounce God. […]
Dear Eugene! You were and are my closest, most sincere and devoted comrade and friend. We served together the cause of our nation and of Christ, as our fathers taught us, as our forefathers – our martyred comrades – as those who walked with us and sleep in the blood-stained ground of the Romanian fatherland, without a cross and a grave. Together with you we climbed the “mountain of suffering”, together with you we braved the “forest of wild beasts”, together with you we conquered the “swamp of despair”, God raised us above the red hell and clothed our souls again with His unquenchable light. We part now, but only for a little while! Our thoughts bow down to your soul of a martyr and embrace you with devotion and gratitude. Without you in our souls it would have been night. We may have wronged you, forgive us! From where you are, send redeeming inspiration to your people and strength to us to follow your deeds. God be with you! Amen. Amen.
(Petru C. Baciu – Hidden crucifixions. Mărturii, Buna Vestire Cultural Foundation Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004, pp. 375-378)