Father Felix Dubneac – a Bessarabian archimandrite in the USA
Archimandrite Felix Dubneac was born on 29 June 1912 in the commune of Voloave, Soroca County, in the family of David and Stefania Dubneac, and was christened Petre. He attended primary school in his native commune. Between 1927 and 1931 he studied at the school of church singers at the Dobrușa Monastery in Soroca County, and between 1935 and 1943 at the Theological Monastic Seminary at the Cernica Monastery near Bucharest.
Between 1944 and 1953, he completed his university studies in Bucharest: Faculty of Theology (4 years), Academy of Fine Arts (5 years), Faculty of Letters and Philosophy (5 years), Higher School of Ecclesiastical Painting of the Romanian Patriarchate. In 1924, at the age of 12, he entered monastic life at the Rughi (Rudi) Hermitage in Soroca County. Between 1933 and 1934, he did his military service in the 39th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Florești, Soroca County. In 1938 he was ordained a monk at the St. Anne’s Monastery in Rohia, Someș County (today Maramureș County), and in 1939 he was ordained as a deacon in the Orthodox Cathedral of Cluj-Napoca by Bishop Nicolae Colan.
In 1954 he was ordained as a priest at the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, and in 1964 he was ordained as a protosinghel in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest by the Patriarchal Vicar Bishop Antim Nica, of Bessarabic origin, former Bishop of Ismail and Cetatea Albă. In 1972, with the approval of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, he was ordained Archimandrite by Archbishop Victorin Ursache of America and Canada in the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen Emperors in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
He was a member of the “Burning Bush” group at the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, a group that brought together authentic Christian life and prominent Romanian intellectuals. He was sentenced to 16 years’ hard labour, 10 years’ deprivation of civil rights and total confiscation of property for conspiracy against the social order under Article 209(1) of the Romanian Penal Code. The sentence was pronounced on 8 November 1958 by the Military Tribunal of the Second Military Region and confirmed on 21 January 1959 by the Supreme Court – Military Academy of Romania.
Other members of the group were Alexandru Teodorescu (poet and journalist Sandu Tudor, later Father Hieroshomonk Daniel, abbot of the Rarău Hermitage), Alexandru Făgețeanu (later monk Adrian), Ghiuș Vasile Benedict (Archimandrite Benedict Giuș was elected Bishop of Hotin in 1943, but his election was annulled by Mihai Antonescu), Roman Braga (Bassarabian Archimandrite settled in the United States of America), Fr. prof. univ. Dumitru Stăniloae, Fr. Arsenie Papacioc, Serghie Sofian Boghiu (Bessarabian archimandrite Sofian Boghiu), the scholar and writer Alexandru Mironescu and his son Șerban (student), Gheorghe Văsâi, Șerban Mironescu, Nicolae Rădulescu and Emanoil Mihăilescu.
Between 13 June 1958 and July 1964 he was imprisoned for 6 years. As a deacon and priest, he served at the Antim Monastery and the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest until 1967, when he was transferred as a priest and authorised painter to the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese for Canada and the United States of America, based in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Here he served as diocesan secretary for 15 years.
On 20 July 1994, at the age of 82, he retired to the Romanian Monastery of the Assumption in Rives Junction, Michigan, where he acts as a priest. In Romania, together with another Bessarabian, Archimandrite Sofian Boghiu, he painted frescoes in several Orthodox churches: The great church of the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, the church in the Bucharest suburb of Dămăroae, the Negru Vodă Church in Câmpulung Muscel, the church in Pipirig, Neamț County, the great church of the Saon Monastery in Tulcea County, the chapel of the Ghighiu Monastery near Ploiești, Prahova County. He painted, alone, the church of the commune Cojasca, Prahova County.
He painted in North America: the iconostasis and iconographic compositions inside the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral “St. George” in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (1970-1972); the iconostasis of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral “Annunciation” in Cleveland, Ohio, USA (1973); the iconostasis of the Romanian Orthodox Church “Holy Resurrection” in Holywood, Florida, USA (1968-1969); the interior of the altar and the iconostasis of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral “Saints Constantine and Helen Emperors” in Edmonton, Alberta, USA (1975-1976); the iconostasis of the Romanian Orthodox Church “Holy Trinity” in Troy, Michigan, USA (1980-1981).
In 1978, he also painted a monumental fresco in the Romanian Room at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA, depicting the historical development of the Romanian people in the Carpatho-Danubian-Pontic area, as well as seven other paintings depicting medieval cities and Romanian voivodes. As a painter, he undertook documentary journeys to England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Syria, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. For 11 years he worked for the Romanian-language magazine “Thought and Art” in the United States. Archimandrite Felix Dubneac died on Christmas Day, 25 December 2008, in a nursing home near Detroit, Michigan, USA. He rests in St. Mary’s Cemetery at Vatra Românească, Grass Lake, Michigan.
(Vlad Cubreacov – The People of God in Bessarabia of yesteryear)