Father Vartolomeu Dolhan – He had such a warm look in his eyes that he captivated you

At the Hermitage of Boureni, the foundation of the Sturzists, I had the opportunity, from the first day of my arrival, to meet other people of the soul who marked me for life. I arrived here in the afternoon of Sunday 16 October 1938. For the first time I saw a brother of my own age, with a fez on his head, walking around the church according to the monastic custom. After vespers I was invited to dinner in the monastery cloister. Before giving the blessing for the meal to be served, Father Hieromonk Vartolomew tested my voice and asked me to sing something I knew. I quickly remembered the royal hymn “Long Live the King” and sang it out loud. He told me it was good and that I’d learn to sing in church…

In the hermitage there were two hieromonks, a hierodeacon, two monks and three brothers, and I joined them. The first two were more advanced in music, being a year older, and the third was beginning to learn the grammar of psalmody, and I forced myself to catch up with him.

I would like to say something about our teacher, the hieromonk Vartolomeu Dolhan. He had such a warm look in his eyes that he captivated you and his manner commanded respect. He was a graduate of the School of Church Singers, had done his military service and was studying at the Academy of Arts in Iași to become a church painter, which he did. Whenever we were in trouble, we ran to him for help, to intervene when we felt oppressed.

Thanks to him, we stayed there and learnt to chant. The four brothers, who were about the same age, also did some whispering. I remember one evening we decided to hold a service. I played the priest: I took the quilt on the back as a phelonion and a piece of belt as a incenser, and we started the service on our own.

As it was evening, we could see everything in the cell from outside, and when the abbot came by the window he saw what we had done. He came in with a small, thin wood in his hand and addressed me some punishment, because I was the one with the blanket on my back. He thought we had desecrated the Mass, and he corrected us up properly.

The next day I stood in the middle of the room with my luggage, ready to leave.

The Deacon heard what had happened and went to the Father Prior and reassured him, telling him that what I had done I had done out of a desire to serve and it would be a shame to go home. The prior understood and came to us tamed, and I stayed in the hermitage learning the chants, as I said before.

During his canonical visitation, Metropolitan Irineu Mihălcescu, after listening to the chant and being pleased with Father Vartolomeu Dolhan, ordered him to be taken to the Metropolitanate, where he ordained him a hieromonk, with obedience to the Holy Altar and the reliquary of the Blessed Virgin Paraskeva. In Iași, all the intellectuals crossed the threshold of his cell, and at the shrine of St. Paraskeva, all the sick, the afflicted, and especially the studious youth, assaulted him with questions and requests for prayers for them.

In 1944, the relics of St. Paraskeva and other valuables were evacuated to the parts of Râmnic-Vâlcea; at the end of 1945, they returned to Iași. There was hunger, poverty and disease.

Father Vartolomeu was described as a mystic with an influence on the youth. He was placed under strict surveillance so that no one would come to him for advice or prayer.

When Metropolitan Justin Moisescu came to protect him, he had the painting in the cathedral washed and, if necessary, restored.

In this way, Father Dolhan, who was almost two years old, was saved. However, he was arrested together with several professors of theology from the University of Bucharest: Teodor Popescu, Dumitru Stăniloae, Sofian Boghiu, etc.

He spent 4-5 years in prison until 1964, when he was released. He could no longer be employed at the Metropolitanate, but was given a parish in Falcău-Straja. As soon as he arrived here, the faithful felt that he was a priest of great value and began to surround him with great love.

Seeing that the church was not painted, he gathered the necessary materials and began to paint. All the faithful from the Straja area came to Falcău to meet him, to celebrate services with him and to receive consolation in all kinds of difficulties.

For this reason, the regime of sad memory ordered his transfer to the monastery of Rasca. Here, too, he painted the chapel and was similarly besieged by the faithful. However, in order to be further away from the Bukovina faithful, he was appointed confessor in the monastery of Văratec.

The consequences of his suffering in prison broke him down and after much suffering he went to the Lord.

At his funeral, God also gave me the privilege of leading the choir of priests and of burying him in the cemetery of the monastery of Văratec, with great sadness, because he had left behind spiritual sons. In spite of the restrictions, the faithful of Bucovina still came and prayed for his gentle soul, full of love for all his fellow men, and paid their sincere homage. 

(Gherasim Cucoșel Putneanul – The Grass from the Wheel of Twilight – Other Evening Conversations, Geea Publishing House, Botoșani, 2001, pp. 42-45)