Father Sofian the Elect

This man was a saint. I had him as my confessor for 40 years. I miss this street, this place. I’m waiting to meet him. I wonder where Father Sofian is now? I pray for him every day. That’s how much I miss him! I pray for him because he helped me a lot in my life. I’m sure he’s alive. I pray to God to number him among the saints. I pray for all the fathers I’ve known: Father Sofian, Father Galeriu, Father Iachint, Father Cleopa, Father Paisie, Father Iulian – he was a great priest – Father Paulin Lecca and others.

The great saints are people who lived with God. He was a man of God. I can’t wait to meet him. I don’t know what it will be like. But I have great hope that I’ll meet everyone I know. I pray to God to watch over me. Everyone dies differently. Father always told me that we must have hope. His last words were: “May God reward you”, when I called him from Sinaia and told him that I was praying for him. How can He reward me? To take me with Him, that’s what I’m waiting for. And to meet Father Sofian.

It was a hard time. He had a kind of hardness when he was younger. At first he put me down… then we became friends.

He was gentle and kind. He surpassed everyone in regards of demeanour. He was pleasant, he was very gentle. Whatever you said to him, he didn’t answer immediately. He’d be silent for two seconds, then he’d answer. He was a bit reserved.

I hope he is among the chosen ones. He’s suffered so much. He’s suffered so much, poor thing!

These people pray for us. As long as they are, God still has mercy on this humanity and forgives them all for not knowing what they are doing.

(Veronica Struțeanu – Father Sofian, 2nd edition revised and added by Constanța Costea and Ioana Iancovescu, Byzantine Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, pp. 267-268)