“Father Professor Dr. Constantin Galeriu, an exceptional priest and preacher”

St. John Chrysostom, in his famous treatise on the priesthood, says that “the listeners judge the sermon not only by the words spoken, but also by the fame of the preacher…” For several decades, Fr. Galeriu has been the most famous Romanian priest in Bucharest, in the country and even abroad. He is the priest whose fame, especially as a preacher, makes Christians come to the Church of St. Slivestru to see and hear him from afar, at any time of the year and in spite of all difficulties. Especially after the events of December ’89, when communication was no longer possible due to restrictions, Father Galeriu was constantly among the most requested clergymen, not only for private services, but also for various public events, commemorations, sanctifications, conferences, etc.

The press, radio and television are also present at the door of the parish house every day, much to the concern of the parish priestess Argentina, who is often overwhelmed when she tries to make an appointment for the applicants.

“I can give up, but I can’t refuse!

Everyone wants Father Galeriu![1] And Father Galeriu refuses no one, guided by a principle he often whispers to himself: “I can give up, but I cannot refuse! Father Galeriu realised that once he had entered the priesthood, life no longer belonged to him, and the faithful, feeling the pastor’s total devotion, sought him out without fear of refusal. What are the reasons for this often exclusive preference? What makes Christians travel dozens, sometimes hundreds of miles to see and hear him? Why is he so much in demand for both private and public worship?

Why is he so persistently invited to give conferences in Bucharest, in many cities throughout the country and in important cultural centres abroad?

Why do members of the media, who are usually in a hurry and very busy, spend hours or even days, with a patience that they themselves did not think they had, to interview the Father, even if only for 5 minutes?

These questions cannot be answered in a limited journalistic space, but we can give some indications. Undoubtedly, the dominant feature of Father’s fame is his originality in homiletics.

Father Galeriu is an exceptional preacher, recognised as such not only by his parishioners, among whom are some of Bucharest’s leading intellectuals, but also by the students who have had him as a teacher and by all the priests who know him. The homiletic dimension of Father’s personality cannot be appreciated in isolation.

Father Galeriu is at the same time an impeccable pastor, a wise and patient confessor, a theology teacher by vocation. These qualities do not make him a withdrawn, aloof, untouchable man.

Father is a man of touching simplicity, combined with boundless care: he speaks indiscriminately to Aunt Lenuța (who has come to the Church to “explain” at length how many faults her “ungrateful” son-in-law has, or how many “tricks” the neighbour is capable of…), or to an important statesman who waits meekly in line to ask his advice on matters on which the fate of the country sometimes depends.

Father knows, and often confesses, that for the person who comes to ask him a word, whoever he may be, the problem he comes with is the most important in the world. And Father treats it as such. That is why you can almost always find him in the church at midnight, especially when he is confessing.

“Father Galeriu is a charismatic preacher”

From a homiletical point of view, the point on which we have proposed to dwell, Father Galeriu is a charismatic preacher. It is significant to recall that once in a mountain parish, at the end of Holy Mass, a peasant was asked how his father had spoken that day. The farmer, whose face showed great gratitude, replied: “Do you know how beautiful the blackbird sings in spring? That’s what the priest said today! He meant indescribable, fascinating, wonderful. I have chosen this little illustration because the praise also applies to Father Galeriu, who does indeed speak in a totally fascinating way.

He always preaches freely and presents his teachings in impeccable form, so that when you listen to him, you have feelings similar to those you have when you listen to a great bird or an experienced violinist who plays a famous piece from memory without error. The Father gives you the assurance that he cannot make a mistake, just as the real violinist cannot play wrongly. We would like to point out that no one can get a true impression of Father’s way of speaking unless he listens to him directly. A sermon by Father brings us a little closer to reality, but loses many of the details that only verbal expression can capture. And just as in a painting it is the details that give the painting its value, so it is in the homily: the details give colour to the homiletical utterance.

We will now present some of Father Galeriu’s homiletic strengths, from which we hope to derive the image of an original preacher, as close as possible to the real one:

Father Galeriu preaches not only from the pulpit, but through everything he does. Father Galeriu’s life itself is an open book of Christian pedagogy from which the faithful can read every day. He always seems to have in mind the words of Blessed Augustine: “Sit eius quasi copia dicendi forma vivendi!

The Father never loses sight of the supreme model: Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Of him alone it is said: “No man ever spoke like this man”[2]. Fr. Galerius dedicated one of his most representative homiletico-dogmatic studies, The Saviour Jesus Christ, our Supreme Teacher[3], to this perfect model, to this particular aspect of the Teacher.

In studying (or rather contemplating) the supreme model, Father Galerius also studied with great zeal the texts of the Holy Fathers, which he invoked in all his homilies. Although at home he had books on the most recent and varied subjects, especially on modern Christian philosophers, from which he quoted with great skill, he always had one or more volumes of the Holy Fathers at his side. Last year, for example, he never for a moment parted with the Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian, of which I once heard him exclaim: “They are so dear to me!”

Another decisive factor in the content of his sermons was his training as a dogmatist. That is why most of them have a very dogmatic character. Let’s not forget that, together with the academician Dumitru Stăniloae, he was the greatest dogmatist of Romanian Orthodoxy, and that he defended his doctoral thesis “Sacrifice and Redemption” at the Department of Dogmatics. (1993).

Father Galeriu’s sermon also carries weight because the preacher is a priest by vocation, not just another official or paid teacher. His quality as a true father makes everything he says arouse maximum receptivity.

He is clearly different from all the occasional teachers, whatever the sect or movement that finances them, and the words of the Holy Apostle St. Paul are true:

“For though you have ten thousand teachers in Christ, you have not many fathers.”[4].

The essential content of the Father’s sermons, based on Sacred Scripture, the Holy Fathers, the thoughts of the great thinkers of the world, and not least on his own spiritual experience, is presented in a chosen liturgical language, harmonious with an appropriate, we would say personal style, to which is added a discreet gesture and an expression of face and eyes that happily accompany the truths presented and underline them.

He never departed from the liturgical language, without rejecting neologisms or certain modern expressions when they are welcome. Father Galeriu never forgot that language is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.

He has an excellent knowledge of the Romanian language and does not hesitate to open the DEX, the Dictionary of Neologisms, the Dictionary of Synonyms, the Dictionary of Spelling, etc. whenever he needs to.

He is always anxious to find the most appropriate expression to express his ideas, but only in a liturgical context. The homily is in fact a liturgical act. The originality of homiletics is thus illustrated not only by the content but also by the form of expression, thus fulfilling the inspired thought of the philosopher Syrus: “Sermo imago animi est; vir qualis, talis est orațio!”

By stopping here with this modest presentation, we do not feel that we are closing, but that we are interrupting something. In the near future we will have to dedicate at least one volume to the Father, which will be the result of a bachelor’s and then a doctoral thesis on his life and the work of his monastery.

In the meantime, however, we have something equally important to do: all of us who have had the honour of being his disciples must remain close to him in order to help him complete at least some of the projects on the table.

(Pr. Dr. Vasile Gordon – Church and School. Homiletical, catechetical and pastoral analyses, Christiana Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003, pp. 284-304 apud Revista Parohiei Sf. Ilie Gologani, issue published on the occasion of Father Galeriu’s 80th birthday)

[1]”Father Galeriu: the vocation of the word – on his 80th birthday – Priest Vasile Gordon.

[2] The Holy Gospel according to John, VII, 47.

[3] Orthodoxy, 1/1983.

[4] St. Paul – Epistle to I Corinthians, IV, 15.