Father Galeriu, the “Messiah of the people of Bucharest”
Father CONSTANTIN GALERIU (Costachi Galeriu) was born in Răcătău commune, Răzeși village, Bacău county, on the eve of the Great Unification, on 21 November 1918, to pious parents Elisabeta and Neculai. After a childhood full of traditions, he attended the St. George Seminary in Roman for 8 years, then the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest for another 4 years (1930-1942), under the guidance of the great theologian-poet Nichifor Crainic, where he defended his bachelor’s thesis entitled “The Theosis of Man”.
He was ordained in the “Zlătari” church and later became a priest in the village of Podul Văleni, Poenarii Burchii commune in Prahova (1943-1947). Between 1947-1973 he served at the “Sf. Basil” church in Ploiești, ending his mission, vocation and apostolate with a three-decade cycle at the prestigious “Sf. Sylvester” church in the capital (1973-2003).
Blessed by God with grace upon grace, with the goodness of a saint, with the right faith of a Martyr and with the love of a martyr, Father Professor Constantin Galeriu climbed all the hierarchical, didactic, pedagogical and spiritual steps: priest-spiritual, profound pedagogue, university lecturer, professor-teacher, professor-consultant and doctoral supervisor, vicar of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, confessor. […]
Father Professor Constantin Galeriu was arrested for the first time between 7 August and 7 October 1950, followed by a second arrest between August 1952 and October 1953.
The good Lord blessed me to know the great Orthodox confessor, first as a confessor, as a student at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, and later as a collaborator in the spiritual mission, in my turn as a teacher.
As a student, I was among those whom Father Galeriu particularly appreciated for my Orthodox Christian attitude and my zeal for the fundamental divine values of the Proto-Dacian nation and the Church of Christ.
I was nearing the end of my fourth year of theology when Father Professor Constantin Galeriu, who was also the Vicar of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, offered me his recommendation for a parish in Bărăgan. I just had to decide and hurry. I didn’t decide, but I hurried my answer: Dear father, I don’t like the dry and wind-torn area of Bărăgan. If it were the mountains, I’d decide on the spot! The great confessor understood immediately and accepted my motivation.
I began to teach theology at the Normal School in Bucharest. During the college day, the director suggested to some of the more distinguished teachers that they invite a collaborating teacher from outside the college. I was delighted with the suggestion and chose the most eminent professor and perhaps the most chosen spiritual personality of the capital and the country: Father Galeriu.
Other guests of honour were: the poet Ștefan Augustin Doinaș, the literary critic Nicolae Manolescu, the General Inspector of Education Vasile Molan, a representative of the Ministry of Education, etc.
The hall of the College was full, trembling with joy. At the express request of the guests, the headmaster rashly gave the first word to Father Galeriu. In a symphonic silence, the Grand Master spoke for three hours, electrifying and fascinating the entire audience.
The other guests were confined to the few remaining minutes, after which the teaching staff retired for a festive dinner.
In the midst of the agape, I challenged the guests of honour to answer the following question:
– If you were forced by the ultimate circumstances to leave the country forever, what books would you consider necessary to accompany you into the unknown?
Nicolae Manolescu was the first to answer, and in his critical ashes he exclaimed I.L. Caragiale and all criticism… Then Ștefan Augustin Doinaș: Eminescu, Coșbuc. Alecsandri… Inspector Vasile Molan answered: The Bible and the History of Romanian Literature by George Călinescu. The guest from the Ministry of Education only said: he is still thinking…
Father Constantin Galeriu was totally and categorically: the Bible, the writings of the Holy Fathers: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianz, John Chrysostom, John Chrysostom, Clement Alexandrinus, Maxim the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, John Damascene, Simon the Theologian, Seraphim of Sarov, Dumitru Stăniloae, Vladimir Lossky, N. A. Berdeaev, Jacques Maritain, Dosoftei, V. Pârvan, N. Paulescu, Eminescu, Coșbuc, Alecsandri, Goga, L. Blaga, etc. […]
An absolute Romanian was/is also Father Constantin Galeriu, who, emanating from the divine Logos, became a crucified Word, transforming the Church of St. Sylvester in Bucharest into the pulpit of the Great Citadel – a model and redeeming sacrifice for the resurrection of the many. His word of use, of light, of renewal, spoken from the pulpit, from the cathedra, from a particular amphitheatre or from any other hall, shone, blessed, electrified, fascinated, harmonised, crowned, enchanted, surrounded.
I have listened to him many times and each time he has brought something new to all the moments, events, Christian-national celebrations. A fragrance of the Spirit hovered over everything. I listened to hundreds of priests preaching: 98% didn’t add a word to the homily, didn’t put a comma, were satisfied with the evangelical pericope spoken for 2000 years and that was it… They even asked for a little help for the roof, for painting, for clothes, for the priest, rarely for the poor…
1% of the priests added something here and there to their words, something insignificant, weak and fizzy… like badly bottled soda. The other 1% were the great preachers: Arsenie Boca, Arsenie Papacioc, Teofil Pârâianu, Ilie Moldovan, Ilie Cleopa, Daniil Tudor, Constantin Galeriu, Ioan Iovan, Nil Dorobanțu, Milan Șesan or the Metropolitans: Antonie Plămădeală, Bartolomeu Anania, Serafim Joantă, Teofan Savu, Patriarch of Wisdom Petre Țuțea, etc.
Like all absolute Romanians, Father Galeriu loved enormously the Luceafăr of Romanian Orthodoxy, Mihail Eminescu-Voevod of the Romanian language. Here is what the great Father Galeriu tells us: “Mihai Eminescu belonged to the time in which he was born, formed and established as a genius of the spirituality of the nation. As a genius particularly sensitive and receptive to the astounding emission of ideas of his time – philosophical, artistic, scientific – he undoubtedly received a certain influence from them, but he did not and could not allow them to impregnate his depths, his identity, which remained unaltered. With the power of his genius, he assimilated the ideas and values of the time, as well as those of the past, capturing the essence, the part of truth in each of them and preserving it in the treasury of his heart and mind”[1].
The spiritual authority of Father Constantin Galeriu shone at the beginning of the 20th century, overwhelming him with spiritual emotion and making his most sublime creative act his own: sacrifice as a gift to all and as a fulfilment in Christ and in himself, as an apostle of social Christianity, which he promoted with determination.
Sacrifice was synonymous with his moral conscience. He suffered persecution, harassment and imprisonment, bearing his cross and rising each time brilliantly as the Great Teacher and Apostle Paul, preaching in the great cities of the nation. He listened to everyone with great attention and with great patience brought many to the isis and the love of Christ. If in the Old Testament fear was the beginning of wisdom, in the Testament of Christ’s love, love and hesychasm (silence) bring eternal wisdom. Orthodox love means loving the other in Christ, in the divine silence that renews you, and rebirths the other.
Hesychasm comes from the Proto-dacian word: hermit = one who lives in the peace of God, in the clear light of truth, in yearning and longing for God. The great Father Galerius emphasised this in a spiritual saying: “I can honestly confess that in the Gospel, in Christ, in communion with Him, I feel that I am in the truth, in the light of the truth, and no philosophy in the world can deceive me, nothing in the world; I have no argument against the truth of God, all arguments are for God, and on the contrary, all others are the “silver” of the fall, of man’s fall from the truth (as Satan fell like lightning from heaven). And then you can give this testimony that you are in the truth in Jesus Christ. Seek this time for the Hesychasm, you will acquire the unbridled joy of the Hesychasm that comes from the Truth, because fear comes from your inner struggle for the Truth”[2].
Father Galerius, as a great visionary and builder of the City and Church of the God-Man-Christ, promoted with great zeal in the social apostolate the cultural and spiritual ecumenism of humanity: “All of us, Jews and Muslims, Shintoists and Confucians, Hindus and Buddhists, and everyone in this world, should realise that we do not find perfection among men. Perfection is in God, and we come to God through the God-One, Christ. And He alone has taught us love. To love is to live the life of another. He alone came down from heaven, left heaven to live the life of this humanity. He did not sacrifice anyone for himself, but only himself for the whole world. This is the way of human understanding”[3].
Of course, the great preacher did not avoid the political sphere in his broad vision that all may be one: peace, love, faith, truth, hesychasm, hope, sacrifice, salvation: “The first charism of leadership undeniably implies the model. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many. The second one – that you serve for the many. To have conscience and to be an example. But how do you serve the many? The third point of the politician: to serve the many means to know the many, to know the social categories, to know their economic situation, to start from these goals of achievement. At the same time, and even more profoundly, there are three factors that build a society: the spiritual factor, which is a change of mentality, that is, a clear conscience, and the moral factor, which is behaviour in relation to the creed one holds; morality that is not based on a precise creed is not moral. So morality is in relation to faith. And the third is the economic-social. So these three factors have to be taken into account by the politician. If a political leader does not identify with the beliefs of the people he leads, how can he represent them? “[4].
The wealth of his wisdom led Father Professor Constantin Galeriu to address all the problems of man and society, including the role of the press. When asked by a reporter, Father Galeriu replied with profound authority:
– Does a journalist have a gift?
– He has the gift of spreading the word, but the word of truth.
– What is the role of the press?
– The role of the press? Some have said that if there had been a press and media in the time of St. Paul, he would have been a journalist. He who walked 40,000 kilometres. After the Saviour and the Mother of God, for us he’s the greatest man in history…
– Do you have a message for journalists?
A message to serve the truth, the truth that builds man. I believe that truth, love, faith, freedom, creativity are the fundamental qualities that define man: they are the image of God in man, they are man’s nature, they are man’s health, and if you fall away from them, you are sick. Or the message is that the journalist should serve these values, to build truth, love, faith, freedom, which means liberation from all evil.”[5].
Nor does he forget the most sublime dimension of the Orthodox Christian’s condition on the way to salvation, the Cross, which Father Professor Constantine Galeriu carried in a Christian way: “Salvation means: the love of the crucified Father; the love of the crucified Son; the love of the Holy Spirit who triumphs in the unconquerable power of the Cross, as an Orthodox hierarch puts it. The Father is the fundamental foundation of the Cross: Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit. The Son is the sacrifice; the Spirit, the dove that always hovers over the Son, is the peace of Christ’s Cross and the power of the Resurrection. The Cross thus reveals the love of the Trinity in its concrete manifestation, in its fullness and in its decisive encounter with sin.”[6].
Recalling the great Pandur, the first Lord of social justice of the modern age, who sacrificed himself for God and nation, Tudor Vladimirescu and the revolution of 1821 led by him, Fr. Galeriu writes that “… this revolutionary movement springs from the depths of the thirst for justice and social justice of a good, patient and gentle people, but no less conscious of its human vocation and dignity; conscious of the right of every person and every people to have its fundamental legitimate aspirations and interests respected and fulfilled on an equal footing with other people, individuals or nations. And when these rights are brutally, systematically and persistently violated, and when there is no other way to obtain them, revolt is called for, with all the suffering and sacrifice it entails, as an expression of divine justice itself. – In this hour of history, Tudor Vladimirescu incarnated himself, gave voice, fought against all the horrors of battle and sacrificed himself, precisely for the justice of the oppressed and voiceless. “[7] […]
Paraphrasing Ioan Slavici, who called the greatest Metropolitan of Transylvania (I could say of all Romanians without being wrong) Șaguna – the Messiah of the Transylvanians, I can say with certainty: Father Galeriu – the Messiah of the people of Bucharest.
The Great Confessor, Confessor and Sacrificer in Christ ascended to heaven on 10 August 2003. Praised be the Lord, in and with His chosen ones!
(Gheorghe Constantin Nistoroiu – Great Martyrs and Confessors of the Romanian Orthodox Philokalia in Literary Confluences, Issue no. 1422, Year IV, 22 November 2014)
[1] Theological Studies…, Series II, year. XLIII, no.1 Jan.-Feb., 1991, Pr. Galeriu, The Face of the Saviour Jesus Christ in the Thought of Mihai Eminescu, p. 45
[2] Pages of Romanian Pateric. Ed. Anastasis, 2009, p. 38
[3] Ibid, p. 39
[4] Ibid, p. 43
[5] Ibid. p. 44
[6] Voice of the Church – Official Magazine of the Holy Metropolitanate of Muntenia and Dobrogea, Year. L, no. 3-4, July-December, 1992, Bucharest, p. 59
[7] Voice of the Church…, Year XL, no. 3-5, March-May 1981, p. 426