Father Ioan Iovan of Recea – A tough, staunch and anti-communist monk
His life
Father Ioan Iovan was born on 26 June 1922 in Husasău of Criș, Bihor County, the son of the priest Gavril Iovan and the priestess Maria. We can see that he grew up in a healthy spiritual environment, which laid the foundation for what he was to become.
He attended primary school in the village, secondary school in Oradea and the Faculty of Theology in Cluj. Those were hard times, the northern part of Ardeal was ceded. In 1946 he defended his bachelor’s thesis entitled “The Holy Eucharist and the Mystical Life” at the Faculty of Theology in Sibiu. In 1947 he began his doctoral studies in theology.
Yearning for total dedication to the service of the Lord, he was accepted by Bishop Antim Nica as a monk at the Sihastru Monastery. In 1948 he was ordained a deacon and in 1949 a hieromonk for the monastery of Vladimirești. The Bishop of Oradea, Nicolae Popovici, ordained him with the necessary blessing. He was the bishop of his homeland, but also the man he resembled in his zeal for the Church and his intransigence against the Communist power that was taking hold. Bishop Nicolae Popovici paid for this attitude with his removal from the chair and his death in humble circumstances, and Father John with imprisonment.
During the seven years of his ministry in Vladimirești, he fought for an intense spiritual life based on devotion to the Holy Communion. He did this on the basis of Scripture and Tradition, although some twisted it and others fulfilled it without discernment.
The large influx of believers to the Vladimirești monastery and the spiritual movement that was born around this spirituality did not please the communist power, which also wanted to diminish the religious phenomenon. Thus began the quarrels. Propaganda was made against pilgrimages to monasteries, the acts of piety of the faithful were persecuted, religious rights and freedoms were restricted.
Under these conditions, Father John, a hardened character, wrote a memoir in which he said, among other things: “The Party has representatives in the Church, the empowered gentlemen. Why does the Church not have the right to go into schools and barracks where, under the pretext of attacking mysticism, faith in God is denied? Is this freedom of worship and ideological method in the P.R.R.? Absolutely not! This is the most perfidious method of religious persecution”.[1]
The result was the arrest of Father John and his cathedral on 30 March 1955 under political pressure. This was followed by an investigation by the security police in Galați. The trial took place and the death sentence handed down in the first instance was commuted to life imprisonment. He served nine and a half years until 1964, when political prisoners were amnestied.
He passed through several prisons, fell seriously ill in Galați and was taken to Văcărești. Here, as in Galați, he celebrated Liturgy. The chalice was a small ebonite box and the wine was brought in bottles of tonic wine. From Văcărești he went to Jilava prison, a transit prison.
The next prison was Gherla, with its terrible commander Goiciu. And then, after the events in Hungary, the most “dangerous” prisoners were sent to Aiud.
Here, as in other prisons, there was a relentless campaign of “re-education”, using mental and physical pressure. Those who broke down mentally and physically as a result of the torture and “re-educated” themselves by formally renouncing their beliefs were given certain breaks. Father Ioan did not give in. He remained steadfast to the end.
Among other “re-education” measures, Commandant Natale read to the recalcitrants the testimonies of those who had “re-educated” themselves. Even they cannot be judged. Only those who have experienced the terror of communist prisons know what it was like. And the height of impudence was when he challenged Father Loan to read from the “funny Bible”. Of course he didn’t. The result was that he was transferred to Zarca, the most terrible place of torture in Aiud prison. This part of the prison was a place of slow extermination, with small, dark, damp cells.
In Aiud, among other spiritual personalities of the country, he met Father Dumitru Stăniloae, our great theologian. “Looking at him in his prison shorts, at his imposing stature, one needed no other example of the mockery and humiliation of the Romanian intellectual leadership by the Communist regime.”[2]
God kept Father Ioan alive, and after the 1964 amnesty he was set free and settled in Bucharest so as not to cause problems for those close to him. During this difficult time, and under the watchful eye of the Securitate, he was greatly helped by the engineer Maria Chichernea, now Mother Superior Cristina. In 1979 she wrote a memoir which she gave to His Eminence Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală, then Secretary of the Holy Synod, who presented it to the Holy Synod and supported it. The result was the abolition of his defrocking on 26 June 1979.
He then served one year in the monastery of Cernica and another twelve years in the monastery of Plumbuita in Bucharest. There he found the freedom that God gave us through the sacrifice of the young martyrs in 1989.
In 1991, by chance, I met Father Ioan at the Patriarchate and, seeing that he wanted to start a spiritual and missionary work, I invited him to found a monastery in our diocese. He accepted, and with him came Mother Prioress Cristina Chichernea.
I urged them to go to Recea, Mureș County, where Father Ioan Lazăr, the parish priest of the village, had built a small church and a building. The two of them completed it and the monastery began its work. In 1992, a summer altar and a bell tower were built. In 1993 the construction of the monastery fortress began and in 1995 the construction of the church. The uniqueness of this monastery church lies in the fact that all the paintings are in mosaic, executed by Viorel Maxim. Everything being ready, on the 7th of September 2003, His Beatitude Peter VII, Patriarch of Alexandria, together with His Beatitude Patriarch Teoctist, consecrated the Monastery Church, surrounded by many hierarchs and priests and more than twenty thousand faithful.
The spiritual work that Father John is doing here is good. Good is also the context in which it is located, far from Vladimirești, and the support given by both the Abbess and Father Professor Ilie Moldovan.
We hope that the sunset of his life will be crowned by God with the joy of a job well done and with a Congregation strongly committed to living the monastic vows and to service.
Father Ioan Iovan of Recea – A strong, steadfast and anti-communist monk
I have already sketched the life of Father Ioan Iovan, using Mother Superior Cristina’s biography of him and the accounts I have heard myself. This time I also have at my disposal the criminal investigation file drawn up by the communist repressive authorities when he was arrested. Father Ioan’s stubbornness and steadfastness accompanied him in all circumstances, including the investigation. I would like to highlight a few episodes.
When he was interrogated on 15 June 1955, he was asked: “What activities against the regime have you carried out since when and with whom? “[3] The answer was firm and categorical: “In March 1945, when I was a student at the Theological Institute in Cluj, a conference was held in the students’ dormitory, and I was the organiser. The conference was held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the student association “Orthodox Faith”, of which I was the president. As president of the society, I gave a speech on that occasion in which I fought against communist ideas and showed the other students present in the hall the danger of the darkness of unbelief and atheism… In 1946, on the eve of the elections, when I was travelling by train from Oradea to Cluj, coming from my parents, who lived in Oșorhei commune, in the village of Fughin, situated by train in Oradea, near Cluj, I demonstrated against communism, demonstrations which were, moreover, strictly related to my hostile attitude towards the regime and the measures taken at that time. The speeches were addressed to some travellers… When I arrived in Cluj, I was arrested and released after a few days of investigation. “[4]
He showed himself to be an enemy of the system whenever he had the opportunity, including at the “Gheorghe Barițiu” high school in Cluj, where he was a religion teacher for a time. But he showed even greater courage in helping anti-communist fighters who had fled through the mountains. It is known that a number of courageous idealists believed that they could defeat the evil and repressive system by organising themselves in the mountains. Even some monks and priests retreated to the mountains, pursued by the communist Securitate forces.
One of the fugitives was Lupeș Ion. When confronted by Father Ioan after the investigation, he admitted: “I went to Vladimirești Monastery twice, the first time on 15 August 1954 and the second time on 27 August 1954… I told Father Ioan that I was living in the mountains with other refugees, and then Father Ioan gave me Communion… He asked me if I had food, money and papers, and I replied that I had no food, money or papers. He went to the altar and brought me 300 lei… After giving me the money, Father Ioan told me that we should not lose our courage by taking me back because we were in the mountains. He also told me that he would be cathartic and that through the sermons he preached he was telling people to take action against communism. “[5] Lupeș also shot people from the repressive organs of the system, probably in self-defence. From a moral point of view, this aspect of his struggle is debatable.
Another refugee was a monk named Teodosie. He met him on the recommendation of Father Gherasim. “Monk Theodosius returned in the summer of 1952,” says Father John, “and I was called to his cell by Father Gherasim, who told me that Father Theodosius was with him, that he was in civilian clothes, and that he wanted to speak to me alone. I went to Father Gherasim’s cell and Father Gherasim came out and I was left alone with Theodosius… He told me not to be surprised that he was dressed in civilian clothes, because he was a refugee and lived somewhere in the Vrancea Mountains, without telling me exactly where, and at the same time asked me for some shoes and money… I gave him a pair of my boots and about 200 lei. “[6] It is worth noting that they were unable to find out from Father Ioan with whom Theodosius spent time in the mountains, or what he discussed with Gherasim after his departure.
During the investigation he was also asked about two other great Romanian confessors: Father Ilie Cleopa and Father Arsenie Papacioc. “Around 1949-1950, I don’t remember exactly when,” says Father Ioan, “Father Ilie Cleopa, then abbot of the monastery of Slatina, came to the monastery of Vladimirești, where I was priest, accompanied by Father Arsenie Papacioc.”[7] Before meeting them personally, he had heard of their fame: “I had heard of Arsenie Papacioc long before I met him personally, namely when he came to Vladimirești Monastery, due to the fact that Abbot Ilie Cleopa enjoyed a certain influence among those dedicated to monasticism, which meant that when he requested Arsenie Papacioc from the Biblical Institute – where he worked as a sculptor – he proved to be known by many people dedicated to monasticism. This is how I heard about them… “[8]
Other famous men, some of them legionaries, passed through Vladimirești, all of them with feelings against the totalitarian regime that was taking hold. The arrival of these “enemy elements” in Vladimirești: “was possible because the entire staff, headed by the leadership of the Vladimirești monastery, namely the undersigned Iovan Silviu Corneliu, the abbess Veronica, the secretary Mihaela, as well as the nuns Theodosia, Fevronia, Tiberiada and Epiharia, created a national and anti-communist atmosphere… I helped some of them with money, others with identity cards, medicines, shoes, etc. Through the sermons we gave, I expressed my hostility to communism and in this way attacked the democratic regime in the country. “[9]
On 5 December 1955, the Territorial Military Tribunal of Bucharest, presided over by Major Branovici Ion, declared in judgement no. 1655, stated that “Iovan Corneliu Silviu, priest of the Tudor Vladimirescu Monastery, expressed his hostility to the regime through his sermons and speeches… either openly or by using words with a double meaning… … he had carried out acts of favouritism for the bandits Lupeș Ion and Ghiță Păiș, although he was aware of the terrorist acts committed by them. … he had favoured all the activities of the legionary nun Iordache Mihaela”[10] and as a result “he sentenced Lovan Silviu Corneliu, by unanimous vote, to hard labour for life, for having favoured the crime of terrorist acts… he confiscated all his property”[11]. And there, Father Ioan Iovan carried out his mission. God kept him and he did not perish in prison because He had a plan for him. But even in prison he remained tough. That is why the Commandant of Aiud Prison, in his characterisation of him, says that he had a “bad” behaviour: “During his detention in the prison he had a bad behaviour, he was disciplined several times, for a total of 41 days in solitary confinement with a strict regime; for not following the programme, for keeping objects that were not allowed, he sang religious songs in the room, influencing the other prisoners in the room to sing”.[12]
High level informer in prison
Father Ioan Iovan also carried out missionary work in prison. He served, shared, taught, consoled and helped. There was one thing that Father Ioan did not know: that informers were watching his every move and reporting him. Father Ioan also had friends among the militiamen who guarded him. They did him small favours, which they thought were strictly confidential. But the informers recorded all these details and passed them on.
Târâianu, for example, whom Father Ioan believed to be an honest confidant, was very precise and covetous in his reports. When, on 14 July 1955, Father Ioan was investigated by three colonels and confronted by Lupeș Ion’s half-sister, he felt the need to talk to Târâianu after long hours of torture. He told him in detail about the discussions at the inquiry. “Why, father”, the investigator asked him, “do you maintain this position and don’t want to explain everything? In some cases you admitted everything, in others half of it, and in others not at all; others, when they saw that they were wrong, admitted everything and tried to make amends, but you still want to remain an enemy.”[13] So as not to leave them in confusion, the Father told them “that the hatred for the communist doctrine would not disappear from him until he died, and nothing in the world would be able to make it disappear, and as for the mystery of confession would not reveal it for anything in the world. “[14]
Regarding the secret of confession, Târâianu added something else: Father Ioan “admits that he has erred before the law by what he has done, but not as a priest. As a servant of God, he had to do what he did; and as for the mystery of confession, even if he were forced to sign a statement for the death penalty, he would not reveal anything”[15] The investigators would have liked to know details about the refugees whom Father had helped. Or, Father was categorical.
Father had friends among the guards. One of these friends was Sergeant Gheorghe. They talked a lot. Only Târâianu recorded the conversations in his reports. We learn that “on the evening of 13 July 1955, after 10 p.m., the sergeant, after taking up his duties, spoke with Father Ioan. Father Ioan asked him: – How are you, Brother George? How are your wife and son, Micah? When I’m free, I’ll come and bless him. Brother George, I have another request for you. See what you can do to give Father Gherasim some Communion, because he is also seriously ill. They’re putting air in his lungs. This Communion – for him as a priest – is very useful. So please do what you can. Don’t force yourself, Brother George, see how you can and when it’s time. I am telling you this because I trust you, and that is why I have told you what we are here for, and what you are asking me at the inquiry. When we get out of here and are free… we will help you as you have helped us here.”[16]
In fact, on 21 June 1955, Father John had advised George ‘not to stay in the Securitate any longer, because man is not happy on earth, but to prepare a better life while he lives on earth, for the other world, which is eternal’. The sergeant gave him his full approval by telling him “that he was forced to join the Securitate after he finished his mandatory army period. Then he told a lieutenant, who asked him why he was a believer, the following: ‘You don’t believe in God because you have two stars on your shoulder; but even if I do, I will still believe'”.
What holy solidarity could be achieved between some guards and prisoners! The interview ended like this: “Father told the sergeant that he had been taken out for investigation and that they wanted to make him a legionnaire, which was not true; then he said good night and went to bed without speaking to the sergeant until he was off duty.”[17] In his zeal to partake the prisoners, Father John used every means at his disposal, including the help of the guards.
Târâianu learnt other, more spiritual things from Father Ioan, which he later reported. For example, some of the miracles that God worked in Vladimirești Monastery. “In 1946, the Oblate had nothing left to eat, and a sister came and said to Mother Veronica: ‘Mother, we have nothing left to eat’. And she said to Mother: ‘Go and pray to Our Lady to give us some’. So they both fell on their knees and prayed. Suddenly a cart appeared, loaded with sacks of flour, wheat and corn, brought by a citizen of Vladimirești named Neculaie Lupoaie. He said to them: ‘Take these, because I’d rather donate them to the convent than give them to the authorities, since I had hidden them.”[18]
Father Ioan had a special respect for Mother Veronica, who until then had not deviated in faith and morals: “He told me,” says Târâianu, “that when he was a deacon, he went with Mother Veronica to the monastery of Miclăușeni, near Roman. This monastery was going to be closed down and he and Mother Veronica sent some nuns there to prevent the monastery from being closed down. Now this convent is no more, only the church is left, the convent became a munitions depot. When they were there, there was a coffin with the relics of several saints, including Saint Mina. Mother Veronica prayed and from these relics began to flow the holy myrrh with which they anointed their faces and eyes. “[19]
It was Sergeant Gheorghe who at one point drew attention to the fact that Mother Veronica was also in the cells of the trainees. It was also through him that he sent the notes and the Holy Communion to Veronica and others. “On 26 June 1955”, Târâianu reports, “the priest said to the sergeant, also by letter: ‘Brother Gheorghe, you don’t know how happy I am that you brought me the news that Mother Veronica and the others are here on my birthday, because I am 33 years old today…'”. Sergeant Gheorghe carried messages to Father John and a niece who was in contact with the Vladimirești monastery and Father Gherasim, the monastery’s other confessor. Gherasim was later also arrested. All this was done in great “secrecy”, except that the “secret” reached the Securitate through Târâianu.
When he was quarantined, under political pressure, Father John did not want those close to him to suffer. Târâianu’s report also mentions this detail: “In January he called his father, who had come with a brother, and told them: Father, on the 27th of January I was defrocked… and now I am expecting to be arrested, and according to the memorial I made I will be released. So you, if they arrest me, you will be investigated. Go home and check the library and the house so they don’t find anything. You say you know nothing about me since I became a monk… “[20]
In the discussions in the cell, the case of the Metropolitan of Bukovina, Visarion Puiu, whose catechesis was abolished by the Synod after 1989, was also mentioned. “He told me,” Târâianu reports about the conversation with Father Ioan, “that these priests who had catechised him had also catechised the Metropolitan of Bukovina, Visarion….who is currently in France in a Catholic monastery, and that he had spoken several times on the radio from abroad… “[21]
Among other things, he told me that he had a good friend in Cluj… and in 1946 he was the leader of the student rebellion in Cluj, in which the priest Lovan also took part, motivated by the fact that he was young and vivacious at the time and, being an ardent nationalist, he had to take part. This friend was not arrested because he had the support of the Patriarch[22] and one word from him and he would be arrested immediately… At present he has become a monk and is a deacon and librarian in the Patriarchate, under the name of Vartolomeu… “[23]
If these conversations took place in the cells of the Ministry of the Interior in Bucharest, the memories covered a much longer period. “During the conversations I had with the priest, he mentioned to me again the confrontation he had with a priest at the Securitate in Galați, concerning the vision; this priest’s name is Leonida Plămădeală, and his monastic name is Antonie. He belonged to the monastery of Slatina… “[24] This is I.P.S. Antonie of Ardeal, then a monk in Slatina and later arrested. The “vision” mentioned is probably that of Elijah, Enoch and John the Evangelist, who, according to Mother Veronica, should have fallen in 1955 and put an end to the totalitarian system.[25] Even today, Father Ioan Iovan has a realistic and spiritual view of all the “visions” of Vladimirești.
Father Ioan Iovan was a good and selfless comrade. When he found out, also through Sergeant Gheorghe, that Father Gherasim was also arrested, he told him not to admit anything, because he was taking everything on himself. It was the case of the fugitive monk Theodosius, whom Father John met in Fr. Gherasim’s cell and helped.
He was also close to Father Dumitru Fecioru: “Around midnight”, says Târâianu, “I overheard them again when Father Ioan was talking to Mr. Sergeant, in which the priest told him that tomorrow, Sunday, he should go to Father Fecioru and ask for communion. In any case, he should try to talk to him after Mass, if he is free, so that he can ask him about the situation in the monastery.”[26]
He also had the care of the monastery in the prison of the Ministry of the Interior. He also had it when he was imprisoned in Galati. “You see, Brother Ioan,” Father Ioan told Târâianu, “it was like that in Galati with the letters. I had Sergeant Major Ioan. He was always making a noise so that others could see that he was active and vigilant. When I came back from the investigation, he would take me to the toilet and I would sit there and write to the nuns everything they had investigated me for and what I had said… and they were surprised that we all said the same thing…”[27] Could there have been a “Târâianu” in Galați?
(Archbishop Andrei Andreicuț – Shared Words, Reîntregirea Publishing House, Alba Iulia, 2007, pp. 5-21)
[1] Mohania Cristina, Father Ioan Iovan from Recea de Mureș Monastery, Reîntregirea Publishing House, Alba Iulia, 2002, pp. 36;
[2] Ibidem, pag. 66;
[3] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 3, p. 89;
[4] Ibid, p. 89 v.
[5] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 1, p. 386 v.;
[6] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 3, pp. 90 v.;
[7] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 3, p. 129;
[8] Ibid, p. 129 verso;
[9] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 1, pp. 389;
[10] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 6, p. 177;
[11] Ibid., p. 188
[12] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 12, p. 121;
[13] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 11, pp. 3;
[14] Ibid;
[15] Ibid, p. 4;
[16] Ibid, p. 5
[17] Ibid;
[18] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 11, p. 10 verso;
[19] Ibid, p. 52;
[20] Ibid, p. 53;
[21] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 11, p. 11;
[22] This is I.P.S. Bartholomew, Archbishop of Cluj, who would also be arrested some time later;
[23] A.C.N.S.A.S., File P. 160/vol. 11, p. 14;
[24] Ibidem, p. 15;
[25] Ibid, p. 14;
[26] Ibid, p. 70;
[27] Ibid, p. 83.