Father Nicolae Grebenea – biography of a great confessor
23 and a half years of political imprisonment under three dictatorships
In the silence of the night. What I wanted to say and didn’t. Who he was and what he did, this frail man with a radiant face, unnoticed by anyone. Marginalised, humiliated, forgotten, ridiculed, moved and sent from place to place as if by some diabolical hand, Father Nicolae Grebenea knew how to enjoy every moment, every piece of life, every little thing that was so precious to him.
We came home from Iași marked and burdened by the departure of our dear father and, as a matter of fact, the devil brought us two militiamen, comrades militiamen, as if to bring and remind us of the ordeal of Father Nicolae in the twenty-three years of prison.
Those he considered friends and brothers betrayed him and handed him over. They beat him and poisoned him in order to kill him, people he never expected. They had him eliminated by the Securitate. They chased him away and put him in prison after prison, all the bigwigs of the day.
He endured and endured them all with a serenity and humility rarely seen. With a gentleness and an angelic kindness. He forgave and forgave them all. He went to the other side reconciled. He forgave them, but he did not forget them.
This is how the book “Memories from Darkness” was born (memories of communist prisons, 23 and a half years of imprisonment under three dictatorships), a dramatic confession of the author who spent his whole life in prison, all his youth, the most beautiful years, sacrificed for Christ and the Romanian nation.
Like the old witnesses. I heard Father Nicolae’s voice on the tape recorder. A whole history, I say to myself, that has been redeemed. By this small and delicate man, who nobody noticed. Who, until the last moment, believed in people and in the ideal of his life. Some would say he was a loser. He was a winner, a man who overcame history, I would say; who overcame inertia, passivity, indifference, pessimism. We had the joy of serving together. I heard him preach. Distinguished, elegant, eloquent. Very well researched. Perfect style.
He often ended his speeches or sermons with a now famous and defining formula, known to everyone, but said in a certain way: Sursum corda! (Up with our hearts!).
I look at the photos taken a year ago, on the occasion of his centenary (25 October 2005), and I see the Father’s face, with July’s lilies, the silent tears of the candle, and the prayer – read in the pew. I’m trying to hold back the whirlwind of history a little: Nicolae Grebenea was born in Rășinari on 25 October 1905 to Christian parents, farmers and good Romanians. His father was a sheep farmer, originally from the town of Grebenea (Macedonia), named Dan Grebenea.
He went to school like any other child in his native village, where the protopope Emilian Cioran, father of the great Emil Cioran, was a history teacher. He finished the 6th grade with the grade Eminentiam and took the state examination in Hungarian. He was a student at the Andrean Theological Academy in Sibiu, where his teacher was the young and enthusiastic Dumitru Stăniloaie, the great theologian and dogmatist of later years. He finished his studies in 1930. He was a teacher of religion at the Lupeni Gymnasium. He led the Christian Society of the Host of the Lord (two meetings a week). 34-35 Student at the Military Infantry School in Ploiești. In ’38 he finished his military service with the rank of second lieutenant in the reserve. Delegate of the Metropolitanate of Sibiu to organise, from 1936 to 1938, the parish of Bicazu Ardelean, Ciuc County. Many Greek Catholic and Baptist believers converted to Orthodoxy.
In 1936 he became a member of the Legionary Movement. He was 31 years old. He founded the first Legionary nest (12 members plus the nest leader) in Bicazu Ardelean. Arrested, taken to the Vaslui camp, sent to the western border in Sălaj, he completed his theological studies in Cernăuți, where his teachers were I.D. Ștefănescu and Romulus Cîndea. Secretary of the Bacău Legionary Organisation; Mayor of Slănic Moldova; on 15 September 1940 Mariana is born, his only child (from his marriage with Silvia Davidescu).
Arrested at 11am on 12 February 1942 in the bitter cold, searched and taken to the Ministry of the Interior in Bucharest. He spent 18 years in Aiud under the most terrible tortures. There he met 800 legionnaires, pupils and students, with whom he developed a warm comradely relationship. From Aiud, he was sent to Ploiesti prison, from Ploiești back to Aiud; the years ’49-’50, hard years of hunger and premeditated murders. He is sent to work in the lead mines of Baia Sprie, where he meets Father Iustin Pîrvu and where, together with the other Easter prisoners, he sings “Christ is risen” in the heart of the earth. Taken to Iași (Copou) for a new trial. Returned to Aiud, he spent 45 days in solitary confinement in Zarca and then another 70 days in solitary confinement, imprisoned alone. Calciu-Dumitreasa, with whom he spent 3 weeks in Aiud prison. Constantin Crișan from Bacău, Radu Gyr, Nichifor Crainic, Constantin Gane, Ilie Rădulescu, Fr. Șerban, Fr. Nicolae Pîslaru, the lawyer Petre Pandrea.
On 28 July 1964 he was “pardoned” from prison, “light as a feather and we flew towards the future”, Fr. Nicolae writes in his book. He was ordained priest on 1 October 1964 in the parish of Spini, in the parish of Șona, Tîrnava Mică, 8 km from Blaj, a former Greek Catholic parish; in 1970 he came to Piatra Neamț; he was appointed priest in Vlădiceni (in the parish of Dîrloaia), a parish with needy people (280 families); he was searched, monitored and investigated by the Securitate. In 1976 he was searched and investigated by seven members of the secret police (two of them by Fr. Neamț).
In ’77 he was “processed” in the deanery of Piatra Neamț, by Dean Pricop. The then head of Securitate, Mihalcea, kept an eye on him. In ’78 he met Father Constantin Țuțuianu. He moved to Iași, where he met the lawyer and poet Tudor Popescu. He is poisoned by his singer. He was executed by the Securitate on 24 January.
Father Nicolae Grebenea truly faced the winds and storms of history. Daniel Stelescu, his devoted student and disciple, told me with emotion that when he served under Traian, he used to walk about 3 km from the railway station. Freezing cold, but cheerful, enjoying the gloves he had woven and lovingly given to him by the faithful who loved him. He was a man of charity and joy. He kept nothing for himself. He treated many through natural and holistic means. With teas, with herbs, with herbal syrups, with poultices or boils, with beneficial diets.
I see Father Nicolae Grebenea coming out of the hell of Aiud with 607 lei in his pocket, a face like a character in Tarkovski’s films, dressed from head to toe by his brother, greeted with tears by his cousins, and now here he is, being carried by the twelve priests and the group of friends to the place of eternity, under the white July sun. You sit and mentally retrace this man’s journey in time and space and say: he lived long or he lived short. He lived as long as God allowed, said Father Constantin Ţuţuianu.
I had the code name Tăunul, he had the code name Drumeș. We agreed that if the Securitate asked us what we were talking about and why we were meeting, we would tell them that we were having theological discussions. Varlaam Merticaru, the Vicar of the Archdiocese of Iasi, said in his speech at the funeral (Tuesday 4 July 2006): “The Blessed Antonie Plămădeală said about Metropolitan Nicolae Popovici at his funeral that he was the pure cheek of the Church; I say the same today, Father Nicolae Grebenea is the pure cheek of the Church”. I met Father Nicolae in 1999 at the Neamț Inspectorate for Culture. He was 94 years old, carried on his back, with a hat on his head (it was winter). I was happy to be among those who reviewed and presented the book “Memories from Darkness” at the Neamț County Library, on the initiative of its director, Constantin Bostan. I served with Father Nicolae and heard him speak.
Today he bids farewell to his beloved daughter, the pharmacist Mariana Mazilu, to his beloved son-in-law, Prof. Ioan Mazilu, and to his beloved granddaughter, to whom he says: “Dear ones, it’s time to go. Please forgive me and pray for me. Thank you for everything and I love you”. He bids farewell to his friends and colleagues, to his confessors and comrades in suffering, to his native Răşinari, to the beloved faithful whom he has shepherded with love and sacrifice, to whom he says: “Brothers, fathers, my beloved ones, we have suffered and rejoiced together; we have eaten the bitter bread of prison together; the hour of farewell has come; I thank you for all you have done for me and I ask you to forgive me. I embrace you with love and please remember me in your prayers. Now I’m going to rest a little”. When we asked him in the autumn of 2005, together with Norocel and Daniel, his beloved and devoted disciples, what he still wanted from life, he replied: “I want to die. I cannot go on. It’s hard, it’s very hard”.
I look at his face in the night and I hear the unmistakable voice of Father Nicolae, like the voice of the great Petre Țuțea: at the future judgement we will be sung with one measure, the measure of love for God and for the nation.
I feel now, as I did when I heard the news of his death, that another pillar of the Romanian nation and faith is being cut away. But he will not die. From his life and deeds, other oaks will grow in the field of freedom of the Romanian nation, as he taught us magnificently: “Sursum corda!” (Up with our hearts!).
We are confident that the Bridegroom and Lamb Christ, for his passion and suffering, for the cross he bore with such devotion and dignity, will receive him to serve the liturgy of the angels.
Blessed be his memory and remembrance.
(Pr. Dorin Ploscaru – Ceahlăul Newspaper)