Father Ioan Negruțiu – “an exceptional man in every respect”
We were scattered throughout the cell, alone in the cell or in groups of two or three. Depending on the movements ordered by the administration, according to criteria we never understood, we had new acquaintances or reunions. I ended up with Father Ioan Negruțiu, from Bihor. Sent to the Theological Seminary in Galați in 1926 on a state scholarship (or supported by the parishioners of his native parish), he graduated in 1934 and became a celibate priest with a special dispensation and later a monk. He was a prize-winner at school and, after graduating, a teacher. He was an extraordinary man in every way. His humility was matched by his kindness and patience.
He refused an offer to become a party confidant and was sentenced to 10 years hard labour and the death penalty. Working with an evangelist, he was impressed by the father’s honesty of soul and deep faith; not long after, he confessed his sins and wanderings, exposing the system of support in money, food and other material goods used by the occult for the purpose of dismantling the Orthodox Church. The man, who had returned to the true faith, asked Father John to ask the camp commander to transfer him out of the Evangelists’ Brigade.
Church in the Bărăgan Colony
Released from Canal Camp a year before the end of his sentence in 1957, Fr. at night he prayed and went to bed. […]
In the morning he was released and sent out of the colony on foot, wondering where he could go. He took a path north through the cornfields. After walking for an hour, he heard an engine roaring ahead, it was an IMS with two secret officers. One, a colonel, opened the door and greeted him:
– Are you happy to have guests, Father John?
– Especially if they are God-fearing people, the priest smiled.
– Come up, Father, we have work to do! We’re in a hurry!
Father crossed himself: “Lord, Your will be done!” The wagon crossed the Danube and arrived at noon at the Calametzu meadow, in a colony of deportees, forty families [in fact, there were about four hundred families n.n., as Fr. Negruțiu would later say], brought from all over the country, mostly from the regions of the country, especially Banatian and Macedonian Romanians. They were housed in huts, some made of wood, others of brick, built by the Germans during the war. The people had gathered in the colony square.
– I have brought you a priest, the colonel said. Stop complaining that there’s no one to bury your dead! Or to baptise your children! From now on you can die as often as you like. There’ll be someone to bury you.
That’s all he said, and he left. The people surrounded Father Negrutiu.
– Man, tell us honestly, are you a priest or not?
– If you believe me, fine, if not, I don’t have any papers to convince you.
He is assigned a place in one of the empty barracks. And the priest quickly confirmed his priesthood. He understood why God had brought him here. The next day he began to make bricks from the earth, which he dried in the sun. He worked alone. People looked at him curiously, but no one dared ask him what he was going to do with these huge bricks. When he had enough, he found a hut with a brick wall. He broke the wall vertically with a pickaxe, creating two openings for the chests of the church, which would be filled with broken bricks and mud bricks; then he made a groove at the base of the wall to collapse it.
The next day, 14 October, was the feast of the Virgin Paraschiva. She prayed: “Lord, on the day of the Captain (St. Cornelius the Soldier, 13 September) I began to build a place of worship for the needs of these souls among whom You have placed me. Help me now, for the prayers of Saint Paraschiva, to complete the demolition of the walls, so that the autumn rains do not catch me before I consecrate Your Church”.
Rising from his prayer, he took an acacia stick that was next to the wall, used it like a lever and brought down the wall. He repeated the operation on the opposite side. He knelt down and thanked God and St. Paraschiva – who would also be the patron saint of the church. When the people saw the shape of the church taking shape, they understood and were convinced that they did not have just anyone among them, but an angel sent by God to take care of them.
When the building was ready, Father John, through the relatives of the colonists who were visiting, contacted Bishop Chesarie Păunescu of Galați, who sent him the necessary materials for the consecration of the church. Colonel Capdebou and another officer, whose father-in-law also procured the bell, contributed greatly to the construction of the Holy Church.
A new sentence for Father John
Towards the end of 1958, during a new wave of arrests, a search by Despei Olariu, an Aromanian poet, turned up some poems by Radu Gyr and a letter containing several names of Macedonian Romanians whom Father John had met in prison or at the Canal. It turned out that Despa Olariu had visited the colony and collected data on the prisoners.
Although he was not found, the handwriting expert proved that the author of the letter was Father Negruțiu. Opus igni, autor furcibus. He was accused of maintaining contacts with the outside world and of inciting anti-state, anti-government and anti-working class attitudes through his sermons, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. After being beaten and suffering, he was sent to Aiud, where I had the good fortune to see him on the cross in the crucifixion cells. The Lord fulfilled his wish by letting him share in His sufferings for us.
O Father John! I am happy that I have known you and that you have marked me with the sign of the Holy Cross, with your arm that touched the bloody knee of the Lord Christ. May I have your blessing, Father John!
(Virgil Maxim, Hymn for the Carried Cross. Abecedar duhovnicesc pentru un frate de cruce, 2nd edition, Antim Publishing House, Bucharest, 2002, pp. 354-356)