Father John face to face with the tyrant Crăciun
After another two or three months, we, the Zarca, were gathered again in a large room.
Colonel Crăciun and his retinue were seated at a table on the stage. They were all seated in chairs, except for the Colonel, who remained standing.
He looked at us first – as if he were analysing each one of us.
Then he said:
– Gentlemen, I have come to you with a newspaper containing many very interesting articles. But one of them is really important. Which of you would like to come here and read it?
All the prisoners searched the floor with their eyes, hoping to find a crack in which to hide.
It was dead quiet.
Commander Crăciun again began to scan the mass of prisoners with his eyes.
His eyes fell on Father Ioan, the confessor of the Vladimirești Monastery in Tecuci County.
The hieromonk, in turn, looked the colonel sternly, motionlessly, straight in the eye. It was as if he did not even blink.
– Father Ioan, come and read.
The smile at the corner of the commander’s mouth changed from ironic to sly and insistent. But Father John replied with dignity, in the same hard and sober tone:
– Colonel Commander Crăciun. I don’t read the books and newspapers you offer. The law to which I am subject forbids me to read heretical books. I simply will not read!
Colonel Crăciun, seeing that he could not persuade the monk to defile himself by reading the Scânteia, pretended to sigh helplessly at the prelate’s stubbornness and renewed the invitation to the others:
– If Father John does not want to read, let a volunteer come. Let’s see who does.
(Dimcica Sima, “Father John, Father John” in Testimonies… Mărturii… din iadul temnițelor comuniste, edited by Gheorghe Andreica, Bucharest, Editura 2000, 2000, pp. 184-185)