Father Galeriu changed my life!

A distinguished painter, a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, a respected publicist and the founder of the “Anastasia” publishing house, Sorin Dumitrescu is a practitioner of Orthodoxy. A spectacular journey from the “hell” of indifference.

“My grandmother played an essential role in my religious upbringing”.

– Your fame as a great painter is fraternally shared with that of a “man of God”. Have you always been a believer?

– I don’t remember ever being disloyal. But in my opinion, to be a believer is also to practice faith. Well, this happened to me later, I was never anti-religious, but still, yes. All the way through the “sweet birds of youth” (that’s the title of a famous film)… The sins of youth are terrible. When I committed them, I was indifferent both to the culture of the Church and to the institution of the Church…

– But at that time, there was still religious education in the family, and parents took their children to church… Why were you indifferent?

– My grandmother played an essential role in my religious education. In general, grandmothers are very important for grandchildren. My grandmother took me to church, but she didn’t force me to behave in a certain way. As a child I learned to take a candle to the altar, to go and be anointed, to go have confession, to go take communion. Later, in my youth, these things were left behind, I had other concerns and became indifferent, but never an opponent of the faith. Young people without religious education are unstable. In Eminescu’s words, “the plough that you put on the vine is missing. Without this plough, the young man is not upright, he slips on the ground. Then youth has the great sin of cosmic presumption, of reckless daring, motivated by the physical strength of age. Youth can be, and sometimes has been, the place where saints are born, but it can also be the place where great transgressions are committed that one regrets all one’s life. I believe that religious education is very necessary, even in religion classes where you only hear about God.

“God doesn’t trample into anyone’s being”.

– What made you go from indifference to life to joining the Church?

– People want to know the moment, they expect it to have been sudden, unprecedented and unforgettable. In reality, you hardly know when God gave you faith. God doesn’t walk into someone’s flesh. In my case, the “moment” was an encounter with Father Galeriu, which I dare to call it providential, because it changed my life. At that time I was interested in all the religions of the Far East, I travelled the world with books, with all the mystical emotionality that nightly readings provoke. But I didn’t read critically, I read in a relaxed manner I didn’t ask myself whether I was a believer or not. I was not unbelieving. That’s all. The meeting with Father Galeriu happened slowly. One Sunday, on the street where I had my workshop, near the church of Silvestru, Nicu Steinhardt, with whom I was acquainted, passed by. I happened to be outside, in the courtyard, on business. He said to me: “What are you doing, brother, aren’t you coming to church? He’s preaching one of the greatest theologians, Father Galeriu”. I didn’t go to church then. Steinhardt didn’t wait for me to answer, he left. He was like a burning fire, trembling with impatience to meet Father Galeriu’s homiletics.

– Did you go?

– Of course I didn’t go straight away. It’s hard to enter a church when you’re young and surrounded by all the beauty and goodness of this world. And if you go, you go with a certain reserve. All intellectuals go to church afraid that they will lose their critical identity and start singing through their noses. That’s how I went once. And there, on Sylvester, I found a priest like I had never seen before, speaking to the faithful with a roar, like the Old Testament prophets, with a loud voice. He happened to be talking about what people do in church. I found out in less than fifteen minutes that what a man should do in church was not at all what I thought it should be. It was like being in a class where all the gestures of the priest during the service were explained to us and how the faithful present should react. At the end of the Mass, I went to the anointing and the priest, noticing that I was not from the parish, that he had never seen me before, asked me what I did for a living. When he found out that I was a painter, he said: “Ah, well, you know that in the ecclesiastical axiology artists come immediately after priests…”. And once he shook my head in his hands and blessed me. I left in a daze. I’ve been coming back ever since.

– What year was that?

– I don’t know exactly. I think around 1978.

– I know that you were very close to Father Galeriu. What was it that attracted you to him?

– Apart from being a bookworm and a very good speaker, he was very tactful in dealing with the most delicate issues. He was very wise, got to know you quickly and knew how to behave in order to win you over. He influenced me a lot and opened my way to the icon and to the Church. He was my confessor. He had a genius for taking people by the hand. Just like the Lord does. Because he loved people. And for him, love meant respect.

– What does the artist think of God? Different from the ordinary mortal?

– For me, Christianity is first and foremost a belief in divine powers and energies. Energies other than the physical. Divine energy, uncreated grace is unmistakable. And not just for those who “catch the short waves”! Everyone feels this energy if they are a little attentive. Some realise it immediately, others over time – after five days, after five years, after 50 years… And you say to yourself: “Look, the Lord has worked! Because of this energy, the righteous of the Old Testament were able to work great miracles. Consider that they did so without partaking of the body and blood of the Lord, for Christ had not yet become flesh. Can you imagine what we who partake could do if we were worthy? If we had faith, even the faith of a mustard seed? The truth is that our faith only makes a case for Christian morality. The powers of faith we are accustomed to leave exclusively to the saints. And we don’t want to be saints on a whim. Because it’s inconvenient…

– Does the intellectual owe more to God than the simple man?

– Yes, he does. The intellectual must become a Christian. Many intellectuals believe in Christ, but not in the Church. And that’s where a lot of misguidance comes from. The Church is seen as a “post-Christ” creation, man-made and without any connection to the Saviour, to God. This is a serious inculture. Only through the Church, through its theandric “methodology”, can man be saved, can he reach Christ and God. It is a gross imbecility to have extraordinary powers around you and not to use them. And these powers are only available to you in the Church. If you are an intellectual, you have the ability to understand these things more easily than others, and therefore you have the duty to live your life in the light of the Truth.

(Interview by Claudiu Târziu – Formula AS magazine, year XVII, no. 766, 30 April – 7 May 2007)