Father Toma Gherasimescu – “He lived beautifully and suffered a lot for Christ!”

The Sihăstria should do what a priest did here, in one of our villages, Toma Gherasimescu. He was a celibate priest from Bacău County.

– He was famous throughout the country.

– The best local missionary.

– Did he die in prison?

– No. I was in the same cell with him. Father Toma Gherasimescu was a very cultured priest and a great missionary. He was from Comănești. He never married. His parents left him a house and a farm. He sold it and bought a printing press. He studied with me to become a religious teacher.

– Where is Father Toma Gherasimescu buried?

– In the Dealu monastery. He went there because there was no one to take care of him. It’s a home for old monks and priests. That’s where he died.

– How did he bear prison? Was he also a man in pain?

– Very much. I spent half a year with him and some of his parents in the same cell. He was stupidly attacked by some Greek-Catholic Ardennes. I always defended him. And the last time I rebuked them, because I was old in prison and in the camp, my word was accepted in the end. We were quite well organised in prison. I told them: “When the history of internal missionarism in Romania is written, I will put this priest, whom you slander, at the top of the list! He cried! He had a very strong anti-sect activity. Wherever he went with his pamphlets, he spoke to the point, the sect disappeared. He had great success!

– Of course, his charismatic life also counted.

– Yes, it did! That’s why he must be remembered. I alone would vouch for Father Toma Gherasimescu. He lived beautifully and suffered much for Christ!

(Fr. Dimitrie Bejan – The joys of suffering. Evocations from the past, Vol. II)