Father Justin – Man of Love, Elder, Hero, Martyr, Confessor
Mercy for the Mother of God!
Before 1990, when he was in the monastery of Bistrița, a poor woman knocked at the door of Father Justin Pârvu’s cell. She came to ask for alms and the old monk, in his kindness, gave alms to the woman. “Father Justin tells us that as soon as he gave the woman alms, he was filled with a joy he had never felt before, a total peace and tranquillity,” says today hieromonk Siluan Antoci of Agafton Monastery. Father Justin understood at that moment that the woman who had entered his cell was the Mother of God herself. But the Lady had made herself invisible. Father Justin said that he had searched for her for a long time, in the cells, in the monastery, even on the nearby paths. The woman was nowhere to be found… So Father Justin gave alms to the Mother of God, who probably wanted to test our good monk…
– What is the first image you have of Father Justin Pârvu? What effect did the presence of this great man have on Your Holiness?
– It is with great joy that we speak of Father Justin, and the thought of him makes us humble ourselves, to see him as an oak, to see him as a mountain, to see him as a great Avva that our Moldova had. I heard about Father Justin when I was young – I was 15 years old – from an old man from the village of Sulița, from our village of Botoșani, old Toader Crețu. He told me: “My child, in Neamt there are great fathers, they are also from Botoșani, Father Cleopa… But in Petru Vodă there is a priest whom the monks of the monastery call the Old Man. He spent many years in prison”. And I thought of the Old Man, as old Toader told me…
– What year was that?
– 1995.
– Father Justin was already in Petru Vodă, the monastery was founded…
– The monastery was founded… He was there with a few fathers. When I arrived in Pângărați Monastery, of course I wanted to see the Elder of Petru Vodă. And the image of Father Justin is this image of the great old man who is radiant, but at the same time he was looking at us, the children who were 15-16 years old, with great affection. I think he looked at us and saw His Holiness. Because he also started as a monk very young, as he told us, and it was a great joy for him to see us in monk’s robes. We didn’t look very good in our habits, we were small, but I can’t forget Father’s face, full of joy and love. From that autumn – because one autumn I went to see Father Justin for the first time, together with our abbot, Father Theophilus, who was Father Justin’s spiritual son – from that autumn I started going to see Father Justin all the time, and I went to the seminary whenever I had the opportunity. And always, because Father was even younger then, I discovered and saw in him the great elder and the child without malice. This is the first image. Many useful discussions followed, many spiritual meetings. I learnt many things from Father, first of all sacrifice and love for others. He embodied so much patience, so much love, so much forbearance… We could stay with him for an hour, two, three… and he wouldn’t get up and say: “Parents, that’s enough! He was happy like a child, he would take us to the trapeze, bless us, say a prayer… And the whole state of Father Justin’s presence made us feel like we were in the Garden of Heaven! Forget yourself, forget time, forget everything. You almost forgot why you had come. Just listening to him, just looking at him, just thinking that somewhere in Neamt, in the mountains, there is a great old man who has the door open for everyone! Who has the joy of sacrifice… Because the joy of sacrifice for one’s neighbour is a great treasure of God. Father had this joy. And a father once said: “I don’t know how it is that every time I approach Father Justin, the prayer of the spirit begins to flow in my heart! Only when I come closer! I didn’t realise it at the time, but later I understood that Father Justin had this prayer that he used to say all the time, which of course he had learnt in the great academy of suffering – the Communist dungeons…
“My God, it’s like Abraham’s bosom here! And puppies, and piglets, and turkeys, and children, and old, and young, all come to Father Justin!”
– Was he like that drop of ocean – that was in Father – that spread, that manifested itself in everything around him?
– It is true. (I had the happy opportunity to visit Father Justin with Father Ioanichie Bălan, with Father Teofil, the abbot of the monastery of Pângărați, with Father Vichentie from the monastery of Secu, and with Father Antim, who is now in Bistrița…). And at one point, when we got out of the car, Father Ioanichie said: “Well, it’s like Abraham’s bosom here! And puppies, and piglets, and turkeys, and children, and old people, and young people, all come to Father Justin”. And really, Father Justin’s prayer inspired everything, it brought everything together. Father Justin was like the patriarch Abraham… If a monk was taken out of the monastery, he knew that he would find a piece of bread, he would find a small kitchen, he would find a word of encouragement. And he gives him hope. What a great thing to be given hope! A nun, a sick man, a woman with children… All of them! Father Justin shared with right and left. An extraordinary man of charity! He never looked when he gave. Dozens of times I saw Father Justin put his hand in his pocket and what he took out he gave. He didn’t look, he took it out and put it in your hand. We were in the seminary and we didn’t lack, but he always gave us a penny. The fact that he had this love for us, to be like us. Although we saw him as a mountain, he was like a brother, he was among us, he lived our youth, he lived the beginning of monasticism. And you can see that so many fathers and nuns were gathered around him, because Father put himself in everyone’s life. And each of the fathers, each of the nuns, and even each of the faithful, through prayer, felt Father present in their need, felt Father Justin present in the need of each monk. Because the monastic life is a life that serves God, it is a beautiful life, and when you think of Father Justin, you go further. Even if you dropped the Holy Cross again, you picked it up again just thinking of the Father who for so many years carried the Cross of so many hardships and so many needs without murmuring. Father was the oak tree in whose shade we all grew up, enjoying his shadow, his greatness, his vitality. Father was the man I could call a hero. Because he had a constant heroism of need, of love for his country, of love for Christ…
– A heroism that should be the natural state of all of us…
– The world needs heroes! We must be heroes in the fight against sin, in the fight against the forces of darkness, in the fight against the body, against this world that tries to remove Christ from our lives. It was the Father who brought Christ. When someone wanted to get married and could not or did not have money, the Father offered him everything: the church, the dining room to celebrate the wedding… For their sake, or to avoid living in sin, Father would marry them… In this way he brought Christ into everyone’s life… He chased away sin and encouraged young people to stay in the countryside. He also thought about the future of the country. He encouraged births. He helped. This man didn’t just give advice, he helped everyone. The shelter he built, the children he educated… He showed everyone that the church is not only a church that asks from people, but also a church that gives to people. And he gave enough, and God gave him great graces. He gave first of all himself, and of what God gave him, he always gave more. He helped many believers. Father Justin’s word was a word that was heard, a word full of grace. You were ashamed to listen to Father Justin’s advice, you were humbled only by seeing his need…
– Do you know people whose lives have been transformed? Atheists, people who were far from God and who, after meeting Father Justin, changed their lives completely?
– Oh, there are so many! So many who have gone the way of monasticism, who have married and sacrificed themselves by giving birth to children and are sacrificing themselves by educating them in the Orthodox spirit? Father did so many missions and led so many souls to Christ that there are innumerable who had Father as the man who threw them into the Vitezda pool. And all of them, knowing the Good Lord, made it so that there were so many thousands of people at Father’s funeral, and each of those present had something from Father Justin, had a gift from him. First of all, the gift of closeness to Christ. He was the man who opened our eyes after the revolution and told us and showed us the beauty of sacrifice and the beauty of living in sacrifice. He showed us the beauty of loving our nation. Father always leaned towards the Romanian nation with love and I think he often cried in the silence of his heart. He was very worried that the family was under attack, that young people were going abroad, starting families there and forgetting the nation, forgetting this blessed land. Many young people have left. But the Gospel tells us that “Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?”. Those who remain, who have Father Justin in their hearts and minds with his teachings, these few people are convinced that they will participate in the resurrection of the Romanian nation. We need a resurrection of the Romanian nation. We need someone who will bend down to this poor Romanian, as Father Justin used to call him, this Romanian who is tormented and ridiculed all over the world.
The Man of Love, the Elder, the Hero, the Martyr, the Confessor, the Father and Abbot of the Petru Vodă monastery.
– For those who remain, how difficult is it to follow Father Justin? On the one hand, I am talking about priests, especially myrrh priests, through whom people often come into contact with the Church. I have seen priests who, since the time when Father Justin was ill – when it seemed that a community had been formed, no matter how far or how close they were to Petru Voda – priests who have changed their discourse, their preaching a little. The spirit of Father Justin could be felt, they spoke a little more clearly to the people, the message was more courageous, we even recognised Father Justin’s arguments… On the other hand, how difficult is it for us to follow Father Justin in the sacrifice he showed us?
– Father Justin helped many parish churches during his lifetime. Dozens of churches, without asking for anything in return. But I believe that Father Justin, and at his funeral, through his body which remained unchanged after four days of heat, through the holy relics, through the day of his funeral when so many priests gathered around him and it was an Easter day, an Easter day, Father Justin showed once again, by the grace of God, that his life and everything he did, he did for Christ. He also showed the priests, who perhaps doubted his life, what he did… The grumbling of many people also contributes to this, because there were also people who did not love him, who grumbled at him, who spoke ill of him, God knows who they were… But what happened immediately after his death made many priests change their minds: Yes, Father Justin is a saint! You couldn’t say anything else when you saw his body like a saint, he radiated so much peace around him… Some may have judged him. But seeing what happened, they were strengthened in their faith in Christ, which showed that Father was a man of Christ. Perhaps they were doubtful, like the holy apostles… We are happy, and I am really very happy, that there are many Fathers who proclaim and show the world that from this small country of ours, so much reviled by many, a great man has risen, a great saint of the Church, but a hero, as I said, who knew how to fight and who conquered. By entering into eternal life, Father Justin showed the world that by the grace of Christ he had overcome sickness, imprisonment and the clever ways of those who did not love him. Love triumphed again! As the Apostle said: “Love never falls”. This is how we remember Father Justin: the man of love, the elder, the hero, the martyr, the confessor, the father and the abbot of Petru Vodă Monastery.
– Let’s not overlook the fact that Father Justin spoke about the confessors in the communist prisons until the last moment of his life, and that he played an essential role in the knowledge of the prison saints. Father himself said that God let him live late to fulfil this mission of bringing out the holiness of those who died for Christ. Do those who remained after Father Justin continue this mission?
– If we think of the spiritual sons of Father Justin and the monasteries founded by His Holiness, we see that this mission is given to them. And not only to them. To the whole of Romania! Whoever feels Romanian and feels in Christ cannot be indifferent to the sacrifice of their brothers. Only those who are not Romanians do not look with love at the sacrifice of these saints who are the new Mucians. Much has been written, and still can be written, about their life in the dungeons. These people suffered extermination, but they lived only by the grace of God. God let them live for us, to show the whole world that blood and tears flowed in Romania, that there were martyrs and saints on Romanian soil. This is what Father Justin has shown. We must all continue this struggle to show the world, through humility, not through worldly things, that these saints were and are those who represent Romania today; their suffering represents us, their blood, their tears, represent the true structure of the Romanian people. Mr Nicolae Purcărea, in his book “Howl of the Pack”, says that 3,000,000 Romanians were imprisoned by the communist system…
– A number that exceeds that of the victims of a war…
– Of course! And these 3,000,000 were the foam: teachers, doctors, priests, monks, nuns… In their suffering, behold, by God’s grace they remained on earth to sow in us the love of the Saints. Because by honouring the Saints, we honour God. The Saints are God’s friends. How many edifying books have been published in the Diaconești Monastery, by Ioan Ianolide, Nicolae Purcărea… All of them had the blessing of Father Justin. In Poarta Albă, in Aiud… All over the country, Romanians are called to honour their martyrs.
– They will be canonised…
– Of course they will be canonised in due time! They are Saints before God. At the right time they will be canonised, but not by speaking ill of the Synod or the Hierarchy. At the right time our hierarchs will also decide on their canonisation. When God allows it. We must not judge the greatest. Everyone is called to answer to his own conscience as a good Romanian and a Christian. If he has one! It was Father Justin’s greatest wish to continue his legacy. He wanted us to prevent the dust and the oblivion from settling and to martyr the Martyrs again, by our own oblivion… The blood that flows washes away the sins of the nation, because they suffered for the whole nation. Father Papacioc used to say: “We are consoled by the thought that we are suffering for Christ”. Isn’t that what the Martyrs thought? When they were beaten… They suffered for Christ! Aren’t they Saints? Aren’t they Martyrs? Let us have a drop of their sacrifice in each one of us.
Father Justin was a great Romanian! And he wanted to make us Romanians!
– Finally, give us some spiritual advice. Apart from the books about Father Justin, apart from the teachings that many have received during the life of His Holiness, is Father Justin an intercessor of our prayers, a bearer of prayer to God?
– I believe that what Father did on earth, he also does before God: he intercedes for us. Whether we ask him or not. The love with which he loved God and his neighbour goes with him to the other world. I am convinced that there, as here, he helps everyone who strives to follow Christ through sacrificial love, through love, through keeping the holy commandments. Should a man who has loved so much not love again after he has gone to eternal life? Especially since he no longer has the weight of the body? And Metropolitan Bartholomew Ananias put it so beautifully in one word: “To be a bearer of a human body is a canon!” Father Justin escaped this canon of carrying the human body. And he certainly intercedes for us, but he also expects something from us. He wants us to be heroes, not whiners! As Father Arsenius said: “What are we to do if we are whiners? Father Justin follows the same line, the line of heroism.” He wants us to continue to fight the passions, to get rid of selfishness and pride and all the evil of the passions. Last but not least, let us not forget the sacrifice for our neighbour and for this small country. Father also expects something from us. We always expect the saints to do everything! And now that he’s gone to eternal life, will he still pray, will he still do? And we expect… Expect what? We have to put into practice what he taught us. Those of us who knew him have a great responsibility, first of all to God. All of us who knew him must fulfil to the millimetre what Father taught us! I mean EVERYTHING. Otherwise, we cannot call ourselves disciples, we cannot call ourselves spiritual sons, we cannot even call ourselves Romanians! Father Justin was a great Romanian! And he wanted us to be Romanians! The true Romanian is… Father Justin is a true Romanian! With his life, with his life, he showed what it means to be a true Romanian: to forgive, to love, to pity, to pray…
(Material by Florentina Toniță – stiri.botosani.ro)