Father Ilie Imbrescu, a special man with a special soul
Imbrescu Ilie – 37 years old, originally from Banat, parish priest of the Boteanu Church in Bucharest, a priest with grace, gifted by God with many qualities and talents. He was a beautiful man, truly faithful, kind and polite to all people regardless of their faith, a talented poet, but above all, he was gifted with an exceptional opera singer’s voice. Both in Jilava and later in Aiud, on some evenings or holidays, when he sang psalms, prayers, songs or opera arias, he moved us all to tears. In Aiud, as long as he was not banned, the townspeople would gather on the road beyond the wall on the south side of the prison to listen to him. The last time was Easter 1949.
Although he was a brave man, he had a shy, overly modest nature. This, it seems, followed him to his grave, for after the Terror, embarrassed to use the toilet in his cell, he took advantage of the short break given to each cell to undress, wash and relieve himself in the toilet on the cell floor. Tipped off by the warden, Dumitru Ionescu, he was forbidden to use the toilet and after a few days of abstinence and constipation he developed an intestinal obstruction and collapsed. It is true that he was in poor health, suffering from lung disease, and he might still have died had he not been cared for. But there have been so many lung patients who have survived that without that obstruction he might have survived. Things happened after I moved from the cellular to Zarca, and I know all about it from the accounts of others.
Whatever the cause of his death, I regretted it with all my heart, because he was indeed a special man, with a special soul, whom I had loved since we were together in secret in cell 13 bis. When Radu Mironovici heard of his death, he said: “… another one whom, because he loved him, God was pleased to call to Himself”.
He had been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for allowing the members of the party he had founded to take the oath of allegiance before him. He was accused of not denouncing them. He tried to defend himself by invoking his obligations as a priest and canon law, but if Micescu himself could not successfully defend himself before the young workers’ judiciary, represented by the old rats of the old judiciary, he had even less chance. I have often heard him express his indignation at the Patriarch’s refusal to intervene (at his request) to uphold the principles of canon law. I think they condemned him for what he stood for in his parish, but above all for his role in the Legionary Movement, of which he was a member.
(Teodor Duțu, After 50 years. Memories of those who are no more, Vol. I, Alpha MDN Publishing House, Buzău, 1999, p. 165)