Father Ilarion Argatu’s last wish. Interview with priest Ioan Argatu from the Romanian settlement in Jericho-Israel
The sun burns brightly, as it does most of the year. The sky, a deep blue, is searched in vain by the few Bedouins tending their goats and poor donkeys, anxiously looking for the odd wispy cloud. In this barren land, a blade of grass is worth a whole meadow…
The road through the Kidron in Judea leads to Jericho, the place where our Saviour Jesus Christ, after being baptised by John, fasted for 40 days, prayed and was tempted by the devil.
Jericho is the largest oasis in the world. Seen from afar, between endless grey hills (in the rock of which, from place to place, you can see niches called laurels, where monks meditate, unknown to the world), it seems like an explosion of scents and colours: waving green grasses, multicoloured shrubs and red bougainvillea flowers. Perhaps not coincidentally, Jericho sits at the lowest point on earth (400m below sea level) and archaeologists say the area may have been inhabited 10,000 years ago. Nearby, the Mount of Temptation, Lent or Carantania, still towers over its surroundings like a silent apostle, long forgotten in obedience… And it is in these holy places that the last wish of the great Romanian priest, clairvoyant and exorcist, Father Ilarion Argatu – to build an Orthodox monastery where all the Romanian nuns in Israel would gather – is now being fulfilled. It is said that since his youth, Father Argatu dreamt of the Virgin Mary, who gave him the order to build the church on this site. Father, who soon became known for the special grace God had given him to help people who came from all over the country seeking healing of body and soul, never forgot his dream. Thus, towards the end of his life, Father Ilarion learned of the existence in Israel of an old Romanian, Uncle Dumitru, originally from the Brăila area, who had settled in the Holy Land since childhood. His parents had bought a piece of land in Jericho and built a small house which Dumitru, in his old age, could no longer keep because of the high taxes. Father Argatu immediately understood that this was the place for the dreamt church… He pays taxes to the State of Israel and buys the land from his uncle Dumitru. Since the law did not allow him to build a church as an individual, he donated the land to the Romanian Patriarchate, which bought a further 900 metres so that construction could begin.
As with any work, there were attempts to prevent Father Argatu from realising his dream. There were many who resented and doubted him. Neither the Palestinians nor the Jews looked kindly on the building of an Orthodox church there. Why should a Christian set foot there? Father was threatened that if he reached Jericho he would not get away alive. And apparently there was a bomb in the car he was travelling in. But it didn’t explode… Our Lady’s work had to be done.
In the last part of her life, all her travels were aimed at raising funds for Jericho. His entire savings were sent to the church. In 1999, Father Argatu fell ill and was in hospital when he heard that the construction of the monastery had finally begun. Then he confessed his last wish to his youngest son, Father Ioan Argatu: “I can no longer go there, to Israel, now I have another way to go; you go and finish what I wanted to finish…”.
I met Father Argatu’s son, Ioan, in Bucharest, between two roads, just before he left for Jericho, where he spends most of the year. He is a man of great stature, whose hard eyes immediately recall the penetrating gaze of his dignified father. Together with his other brothers – also priests (Alexander and Stephen) – and his two sisters, the wives of priests, he carries on Father Ilarion’s message of serving God without limit. But only John was given the most generous part of the mission: to supervise the building of Jericho, for the praise of Our Lady…
– Father Ioan Argatu, your father’s last wish was to build a Romanian church in the place where Jesus spent a very important period of his life. What is this project?
– I believe that nothing in this world is accidental. I even see a connection between this particular place, Jericho – where the Saviour fasted and was sorely tried by the devil – and Father Ilarion himself, with his fasting, his temptations and all that he had endured… We say that he suffered a lot during his life on earth, and perhaps the good Lord wanted this building to be a spiritual satisfaction for him. Father Ilarion wanted to build a convent in Jericho where all the Romanian nuns living in Israel – I think there are about 70 of them – would be gathered. The generous project was well thought out by Mr. Sorin Vasilescu, Dean of the Institute of Architecture in Bucharest, and the architect Horia Gavriș. It includes the presbytery with the chapel, the bell tower and the library, a mini-hospital, a dentist’s surgery, a dining room and a three-storey building that will accommodate about 70 pilgrims in rooms with all the necessary comforts. The Romanian monastic settlement has two dedications: the church is dedicated to the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the chapel – to St. John Jacob the Hozevite – the Romanian and all the Romanian saints who died in Palestine. At present, the work is well advanced: the main church has been built and the work has been started at the middle tower. The whole ensemble will be made of reinforced concrete and cement, and will later be covered with the white stone typical of Israel. It will be a church in which the Romanian spirit will be strongly felt.
– You must have encountered some difficulties in the construction of this building…
– Of course we have, as in any God-given work. But before talking about the difficulties, I would like to mention the team of Romanian workers, all very hardworking and faithful, led by an exceptional engineer – Mr. Constantin Teodorescu, who I believe was God’s choice for this project. All his work was done without money, only with great faith. We were also helped, again voluntarily, by many other Romanian workers scattered throughout Israel, who came on Saturdays and Sundays. But since the conflicts between the Arabs and the Israelis, the roads are blocked and the workers no longer come to us… But the real burden is raising the money to finish the work. So far we have collected money through donations from the country, from Romanian workers in Israel and from pilgrims brought by travel agencies…
God help us!
(Interview with Ruxandra Constantinescu – Formula AS magazine, 2001, no. 464)