Father Ștefan Marcu – A symbol of the anti-communist resistance in Vrancea
Father Ștefan Marcu was born on 28 November 1906 in Poiana, in a family with a priestly tradition, one of his ancestors being the priest Ion Danțiș from Nistorești, known as the “Patriarch of Vrancea”. He suffered the martyrdom of the communist prisons for 15 years and went to God through a violent death.
Father Ștefan Marcu, a great Orthodox believer and lover of the nation, is another of the many Orthodox priests who sacrificed themselves for the faith.
In June 1928, Ștefan Marcu graduated from St. George’s Seminary in Roman, then enrolled at the Faculty of Theology in Iași, which he later completed due to the hardships he had to face throughout his life. On 1 November 1929 he was appointed teacher at the Focșani Normal School, where he worked until 1 December 1931. On 11 January 1931 he married Elena Chifulescu, being married by the leader of the Legionary Movement, Corneliu Z. Codreanu. They had three children: Gabriela, Mihaela and Corneliu.
Later he was ordained to the parish of Nistorești, where he served from 1 December 1931. This parish consisted of the villages of Podul Nărujii, Rebegari, Nistorești, Ogoarele, Bâtcari, Găinari, Romanești and Olărești, with 336 families and 1263 souls in 1936. The parish had a church dedicated to the “Pentecost” and the parish church of St. Nicholas. Ioan Dantis, who had contributed much to the reconstruction of the two churches in the parish.
Fr. Marcu would be involved in the political currents of the time, and from 1929 he would be noted within the Legionary organisation, becoming first the leader of the Legionary network, then the leader of the movement in Putna County, until 1938, when political parties were abolished. During the wave of repression that began in December 1933, on political orders, after the murder of I. Gh. Duca, the priest Ștefan Marcu was detained for over a month in the Focșani prison “at the disposal of the police”, without a warrant or any explanation. In the opinion of the police authorities, the erection of a trophy in Stroești-Năruja on 14 May 1936, “on the initiative of Father Marcu”, was considered a Legionary activity, in which the priest Vasile Boldeanu and other local Legionary leaders took part.
On 25 March 1938, on the Feast of the Annunciation, Father Marcu was to be investigated and searched by the head of the local gendarmerie station in order to find “Legionary propaganda material”, with “negative results”. The gendarmerie’s action was prompted by the priest’s gesture of remembering Ion Moța and Vasile Marin, Legionaries who had fallen in the Spanish Civil War, when he came out with the Holy Gifts during the Holy Liturgy celebrated on the feast day in question.
In September 1938, Father Marcu was sent to the camp for legionary internees in Vaslui and then, in mid-November, to the camp for priests only in Sadaclia (Tighina County, Bessarabia). Here, along with the other priests, Father Marcu had his prayer book confiscated, as it was considered Legionary material.
On 22 December 1938, Father Stefan Marcu returned home from the Sadaclia camp. Then, on 12 January 1939, he was forced by the authorities to join the “National Renaissance Front”, the party founded by King Charles II, like any other civil servant. However, this did not spare him from the harassment of the gendarmerie, who searched and arrested him at every political event, every time the regime challenged the legionaries.
Thus, on 26 January 1939, on his return from Bucharest, where he had taken some exams at the Theological Faculty, he was searched and arrested at home, on the grounds that he had not informed the gendarmerie station when he left his native town. Later, on 21 September 1939, after the murder of Armand Calinescu, our father was searched for “legionary material or weapons”, but again nothing was found. At the same time, he was arrested and taken to the gendarmerie station at Putna.
Priest and political leader
On 4 September 1940, in the midst of the political unrest in Bucharest that would culminate in the abdication of King Charles II, a telephone order from the Putna County Police ordered the search and arrest of Father Ștefan Marcu at his home.
After the establishment of the national legionary regime, in September 1940, at the request of the priest Vasile Boldeanu, Fr. Ștefan Marcu was entrusted with the leadership of the legionary organisation in Putna County until January 1941. In this capacity, he was confronted with the negative manifestations of some legionaries, who claimed to have precise orders from the centre and tried to carry out various actions without him. But even his role as a priest “was not compatible with the state of command”. “I had the impression that there was a certain discrepancy between the way I understood things and the way others tried to deal with them,” the priest said in an autobiographical statement dated 10 May 1949.
How he reconciled his role as a priest with his position as a political leader is revealed in the same document: “All the time I was in politics I never lost sight of the fact that I was a priest. There were two plans of social action: a political one and a priestly one. In my conception of life, the main plan was that of my priestly activity, with which I tried to identify myself, and the other always remained secondary. But I could not help noticing that there was a discrepancy between my way of judging politics and that of most of the Legionaries with whom I had been in contact.”
During the so-called “Legionary Uprising” of January 1941, Fr. Marcu, with the wisdom and good will of the state authorities, managed to keep the Legionaries calm so that no conflict broke out in the streets of Focșani. “Those were very difficult days for me as a political leader. Many had lost their clear judgement and were carried away by passions. From one moment to the next, conflicts could break out in the county or in the city, leading to unnecessary bloodshed.
Chaos reigned everywhere, and this state of affairs was exacerbated by the fanciful news on the radio. I tried to keep calm. I used all my judgement to make decisions that would enable me to overcome the critical moments. With God’s help, I managed to get through those days without incident, and I even had the satisfaction of receiving public congratulations from the then Prefect […] who said that I had behaved like a priest” – confesses Father.
After the events of January 1941, Father Mark retired to his native village, to the church where he was parish priest, as he says in the above-mentioned statement: “After the grave situation of January had been brought to an honourable end, I was able to return to my village and take care of my priesthood and my people. Since then I have not been involved in politics. I worked as a parish priest wherever I was asked and looked after my household”.
Harassed by the authorities
He continued to be persecuted, always under the suspicion that his former position in the Legionary Movement in the district of Putna was a threat to the security of the State. In a note dated 7 April 1941, we learn that Father Marcu was “under strict surveillance”. Later, he could not leave the town without the gendarmerie’s permission, being placed under house arrest, a situation he protested against, claiming that it was not provided for in any law. At the same time, his correspondence was intercepted.
On 14 December 1941, the priest’s house was searched again following a complaint that he was in possession of Legion propaganda material. The result of the gendarmes’ action can be considered one of the most ridiculous, considering the objects considered suspicious and listed in the minutes: “A green pyjama belonging to Father Ștefan Marcu; a green blouse belonging to Mrs Elena Marcu […]. No weapons or ammunition were found”. This situation will end here. But only for the moment. On 14 June 1942, the priest was searched again for the same pyjamas. This time the priest explained: “The pyjamas confiscated from me are my property and I wore them as everyone else does, in private, in the family”. At the same time, his wife added in her statement that “since they are my property and since I believe that a pair of pyjamas cannot be the object of illegal propaganda, I hope that I will be able to have them back”.
In order to complete the investigation, the priest was taken to the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the 21st Division of Galați, which stated in its introductory report that “it was not possible to establish that he had been active in the legionary movement after January 1941, nor was it possible to establish that he had worn the pyjamas in public”. The case was therefore closed.
However, by order no. 447 of 25 December 1942 to the gendarmerie station in Năruja, in accordance with the order of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of the Interior, our father was “tactfully” arrested and sent to the monastery of Tismana, which for a time became a camp for priests. He was released from there in April 1943.
After 23 August 1944, Father Marcu was more closely monitored by the police, in accordance with the provisions of the Armistice Agreement signed with the Soviet Union, which aimed to destroy “fascist groups” suspected of being politically active or subversive. On 13 October 1944, Father Marcu’s house was searched. In January 1945, Father Marcu was investigated by the “Operative Commission for the Protection of the Legionaries”, accused of “having been active in the Legionary movement as leader of the Putna county organisation, without any other facts in his file”, and was therefore released, although he had been hiding at his mother’s house in Poiana and at home all this time.
Support for the anti-communist resistance
Until 1948, Father Marcu was left alone by the state authorities. However, he was no longer involved in political matters and, moreover, he enjoyed the esteem and affection of the faithful of his parish, as we learn from an informative note dated 2 July 1948: “He does not take part in the meetings of the parish which are held; he is occupied with his priestly work and the household […]; he hopes and nourishes the idea of the new change; […] he has a great influence; the inhabitants of the parish believe in him very much; he is afraid and worries about being arrested and interned in a camp. [He has the ability to draw the masses behind him; he is a very good speaker and very good at organising”.
It was the calm before the storm.
In April 1948, in Focșani, while visiting Octav Pavelescu, the host of his daughters who were attending the local girls’ high school, he came into contact with two students from Bucharest, originally from Panciu, who were involved in the Vrancea resistance group. They told our father that, as legionnaires, they were in contact with the Bucharest command, with the instruction that he should not activate himself, but only maintain very discreet contacts, through Costin Atanasiu, with the young people who had the mission to act. At the same time, when arrests were imminent, as announced by the Bucharest Command, the old legionnaires could take care of them. Father Marcu instructed Costin Atanasiu to collect money from various people to help the sick and the imprisoned.
This state of expectation did not last long, because in the summer of 1948 the Securitate began mass arrests in the Vrancea area, a situation that led Father Marcu, on 17 July, to take refuge in the nearby hills with Octav Pavelescu and Costin Atanasiu, just minutes before the Securitate arrived at his house. He stayed at home for a while, then spent the winter at his mother’s house in Poiana. While he managed to escape arrest for a moment, his wife and daughter Gabriela were arrested.
During his exile, he met several members of the Vrancea resistance movement. In September and then in November 1948, the student Cristea Paragina, from Panciu (a refugee), brought to Father’s attention the initiative to reorganise the Legionary Movement in the area, for which he needed support. Father refused to get involved. In March 1949, through his daughter Gabriela, he was informed that the leader of the Legionaries of Râmnic County wanted to talk to him, especially since an agreement had been reached at the central level for anti-communist collaboration between the peasants, the liberals and the Legionaries. The meeting never took place because the Râmnic leader was arrested.
After the disappearance of Father Ștefan Marcu from his home, the believer Murgu Cucova, “who was used to making religious propaganda, took the initiative and proposed to the villagers of this commune, who were gathered in front of the town hall, to write a memorandum to the presidium of the RPR, asking for an end to the persecution of the aforementioned priest and for his return to the commune to continue to serve in the church”. In the quoted memorandum, addressed to the General Directorate of Security and dated 5 January 1949, it is stated that “after the population had approved this proposal, Mr Murgu Cucova drew up the memorandum and visited the villagers from house to house to get them to sign it, being assisted in the collection of signatures by Stoian Vasile from the same commune”. Obviously the Securitate took action, but how and when we cannot say.
On 25 April 1949, Father Ștefan Marcu was arrested by the Securitate after his house had been searched. The Securitate investigators included him in the “Single Committee” group in Focșani, which consisted of 15 people and was led by the priest Enache Graur, who, according to the investigation, was linked to the National Resistance Committee in exile. He was investigated from the time of his arrest until November 1949, with only two statements on record, made on 10 May and 9 June 1949. Together with Father Stefan Marcu, his wife Elena and eldest daughter Gabriela were arrested.
A true spiritual leader in prison
In the report of the Securitate closing the criminal investigation into the resistance group “The Single Committee” in Focșani, dated 3 November 1949, Father Stefan Marcu “is guilty of harbouring the legionnaires Octav A. Pavelescu and Costin Atanasiu, whom he kept hidden in his house in Nistorești for three months, knowing that they were fugitives. He is guilty of legionary activity in that, in the autumn of 1948, he was in contact with Octav Pavelescu, Costin Atanasiu and other legionaries, giving them tasks on how to keep in touch with the fugitive legionaries in the mountains. He is responsible for organising the former legionnaires, for making donations and collecting money for those in prison (legionnaires)”.
On 14 August 1950, with the verdict no. 663, Father Ștefan Marcu was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour and 5 years’ civil servitude for incitement against the social order and for aiding and abetting criminals. On 26 October 1950, the Military Court of Cassation and Justice, by decision No. 3435, rejected Father Marcu’s appeal.
After his conviction, Father Marcu suffered in the Romanian gulag prisons of Galati (1950 and 9 April 1959), Jilava (1959), Aiud (1951, 1956 and 1959) and in the labour colonies of Valea Neagră (1950-1951), Peninsula (1951) and Poarta Albă (1951).
As a political prisoner, he worked on several occasions: in Poarta Albă for 22 days in April 1951, in Peninsula for 164 days from 1 May to 16 October 1951, and in Aiud for 282 days at various times. At the same time, he was transferred to the Securitate in Cluj (8-19 October 1952), Aiud Prison (April 1952, 26 September 1952 and 12 January 1956 – to show the legionaries in Focșani) and Galați (12 April 1959) for various investigations.
In prison, he had problems with his health, which was already precarious before 1948. From the documents in his prison file we learn that Father Marcu suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, for which he was admitted to the prison hospital in Aiud on 6 February and 14 November 1956. On 27 September 1956, while still in Aiud, he was suspected of having “dystrophy gr. II”. He was admitted on 28 May and 21 July as “improved” for “right pleurisy […]”, but between 27 July 1961 and 17 March 1962 he had “epicarditis” and was admitted again with the diagnosis of “pulmonary TB […]”.
From the priest Dimitrie Bejan, who met Father Marcu in Aiud, we have an episode relevant to his behaviour in prison: “Over there, on a box, the priest Ștefan Marcu, from the mountains of Vrancea, was praying. Andrei Ioan sneaked up to me and slapped him on the cheek: What are these mystical signs? Don’t you know they’re forbidden? Do you want us all to be punished for you? Mark, on his feet, replied calmly: “Hit me on the other cheek too.” And Judas strikes. The blows fell on his head and in his ribs. The red of the blood appeared on Mark’s face. Leaning against the bedpost, he received the savage blows. Judas shouted and hit him: I’ll teach you the Christian life! I will make you a martyr! When Judas stopped panting, with sweat on his brow, Mark silently made the sign of the cross. Judas goes away, cursing, with all the Orthodox calendar…”.
On 21 April 1964, at the end of his sentence, Father Stefan Marcu was released from Aiud prison.
Killed by the Securitate?
After Father Marcu’s conviction, his family also suffered. In an address from the Focșani Regional Directorate to the local Securitate office, dated 8 February 1951, the request was made: “Take the measure of recruiting an information network for the family of the arrested priest Marcu Ștefan from the village of Nistorești. We are interested in what this family lives on, who helps them materially and morally, and with what elements they are connected. The result of the information campaign will be copied to us by 20 February 1951”.
On 16 February 1951, the Securitate replied that the wife and two children, who had been at large, had moved to Focșani about three months previously and that an informer had been appointed. In this context, on 22 March 1951, the source “Iscu” informed the Securitate about Father Marcu’s wife: “She began to tell me that she was living terribly hard. She divorced her husband […] she left Vrancea to support a little girl at school. She used to sell what she had, but now she has little to sell, nothing to wear and nothing to be ashamed of. She asked for a job at the shelter, but she didn’t have any papers. She’s willing to do any kind of work, but everyone shuns her. She hasn’t heard from her husband. She hasn’t heard from the girl [Gabriela, n.n.] since November, when she sent her clothes. She lives in Focșani in a room rented in the name of the girl from the high school”.
After his release, Father Marcu was observed with deliberate indiscretion. He was often summoned by the Securitate, sometimes only to be seen by people who were compromised. In spite of the delicate situations in which he found himself, he overcame his persecutors with his self-sacrificing love and earned the respect of most of them. It was not uncommon for some of his followers, especially towards the end of the communist regime, to choose him as their confessor, precisely because they knew him to be upright.
From 1 October 1964 until his retirement on 1 January 1975, he served the parish of Maluri, in the deanery of Focșani, Vrancea County, where he was appreciated, respected and loved by his parishioners.
Thirty years after his departure from the parish, he is still alive and often remembered by his parish priests. For 15 years he served in various churches in Focșani, being an exceptional confessor and bringing many back to the faith. Doctors, professors, engineers, lawyers and prosecutors, as well as ordinary Christians, sought him out, both for the competence of his advice and for the power of his prayer, through which he saved many from eternal damnation. He was a true servant of conscience, a consummate ascetic, a sincere living of the Gospel message. You could see him serving the Liturgy with tears streaming down his face, his face transfigured, his voice hoarse, but with a great sense of Byzantine melody. He was a saint from the icon and a voice from the depths, the face of gentleness and the ocean of humility. He suffered, not only at the hands of the organs of repression, but even at the hands of some of his colleagues who, obedient to the regime and overcome by hidden envy, forbade him to serve and made him feel like a stranger among his own. He was merciless to sin and understanding of sinners.
On the evening of 28 September 1989, as he was returning from the market, a car hit him on the pedestrian crossing in front of the staircase of the block where he lived, and only after several hours of agony did he place his obedient end in the hands of the Creator. The “accident” could be suspected of political connotations, all the more so as the driver had links with the Securitate and the watchful eye of the Party had been conducting checks in the block where he lived a week before the accident.
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Pr. Ionel Ene, “Father Ștefan Marcu – a Symbol of the Anti-Communist Resistance in Vrancea” in Rost Magazine, Year III, No. 28, June 2005, pp. 46-51).
Unpublished sources:
ACNSAS, Documentary fund, file 74, vol. 6;
AMJDIN, Criminal fonds, file 12945, vol. 1, 3;
ANIC, DGP fonds, file 76/1946;
ATMTI, Criminal fonds, file 143/Vrancea, vol. 2, 5.
Edited sources:
BEJAN, Dumitrie, Vifornița cea mare, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996.
General works:
***Anuarul Eparhiei Romanului-1936, Institutul de Arte Grafice “Marvan”, SAR, București;
***The Imprisoned Church. Romania 1945-1989, INST, Bucharest, 1999;
IVAN, Mihai Silviu, ENE, Ionel, Jertfă în spazio mioritic, Focșani, 2001;
MANEA, Vasile, Orthodox Priests in Communist Prisons, 2nd edition, Patmos, 2001.