Father Ion Iorgulescu the Confessor

He was the priest who, with great dedication, served the faithful through the mission entrusted to him at his ordination. From the first parish entrusted to him, “Bălțați”, Mehedinți County, he worked for the repair of the parish and branch churches, and contributed to the formation of a church choir and a parish library.

He was a model of Christian life, encouraging his parish priests to lead exemplary lives through his moralistic sermons. He supported charities and a canteen for schoolchildren in the parish.

In 1925 he moved to Vânju Mare, where he began to build a church, but the political circumstances did not allow him to complete it until the communist period. When he went to consecrate it in 1959, he was summoned by the Security Service and investigated for refusing to accept the conversion of the church into a cinema. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. He died in Gherla prison on the night of 27 November 1960. According to an eyewitness, the guard sent to confirm his death drove a stake through Father Ion Iorgulescu’s heart.

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Lumina Newspaper)