Father Vasile Pătrașcu – a great fisher of men

Father Vasile Pătrașcu was my confessor. He is the man who has had the greatest influence on my relationship with the Church and with God. He was truly a man of extraordinary personality. It was from him that I first heard about the sanctity of the martyrs in the communist prisons. He told me how, in Pitești, someone who had seen in the Spirit saw the prison bathed in an unearthly light, thanks to the prayers of those inside, despite the most terrible tortures.

He was a fighter, a tough man. He was able to read the Molitves of St Basil the Great seven times in a row every Friday and once on Wednesdays and Sundays after Holy Liturgy, alone, without any other priest. I have often witnessed exorcisms of demonised people, and some demons have uttered blunt threats against the priest during prayer. Once, after 1989, I heard that he was forbidden to held the Molitves. He then went directly to Patriarch Theoctist, who (re)confirmed this right.

Before the beginning of the Molitves, read 7 times in a row, he would read an enormous string of memorial lists for several hours. During this time, someone from the Church would read from the Lives of the Saints or various texts, some of them written by him, which spoke of things I didn’t understand very well at the time, or didn’t pay much attention to: Freemasonry, the effects of television on the soul, witchcraft and so on.

Father was a seer in spirit, when, how and with whom he had to. I know this from my own experience. Time and again he would give me advice to beware of things that I had no idea would happen. But a long line of people I have met have told me how much this gift of a father has helped them to avoid or get out of difficult situations. The first case I heard was of a woman whose husband was healed of drunkenness. In addition, both the woman and the man began attending church regularly and confessing to the priest.

By all accounts, Father Vasile was a great fisher of men. He was famous for the canons he gave. A friend of mine accidentally went for Communion after dinner. The priest gave her a whole series of prayers, and many prostrations, as well as fasting for 40 days. Although my friend had never done a canon before in her life, and although she found it extremely difficult (she said she wanted to throw the prayer book on the floor), she managed to complete this 40-day canon. I myself am a witness to the canon which, after so many years, I can consider really hard: 3-4 hours of prayer a day, plus several hundred prostrations, plus black fasting on fast days of the week.

Father Vasile had an extraordinary ability to mobilise souls. You would see people who had never been to church before, or only occasionally, people who didn’t even say the Our Father before going to bed, suddenly being thrown by Father into a sea of Akathist, psalms, prostrations, fasting, and in some cases even the prayer of the heart. And to their great surprise, and to the surprise of others, they actually did them and carried them through to the end. It was unusual because you usually take beginners for granted. That’s pretty much the general rule, but it didn’t apply to Father Vasile. Those who had been coming to him for years had a rhythm of life and prayer that could be compared to that of an ordinary monk.

Father was also a great confessor. The fact that he had the gift of fore-sight was important, of course, but he had a patience that I have never encountered in anyone else. He gave great attention to the lay people who had never confessed before or who had confessed very rarely. He would keep them for one, two or three hours at a time, and if he thought that was not enough, he would call them again and again until he felt that the old “dross” in the man had been well scraped off.

Sometimes he would come out of the shrine and give a short but harsh sermon on the various sins he had come across in confession. At the end he would say: “Don’t say I didn’t tell you. At the Judgement the Saviour will ask me: did you tell them, Basil, did you tell them? Well, I told them, Lord, I told them!”

Father Vasile was, in my opinion, a perfect priest. He was a martyr of the communist prisons, he was gifted with special graces, the casting out of demons and fore-sight, but above all he was someone who left strong marks in the lives of everyone who came to his services and confessions. He had the gift of giving spiritual direction, of impressing a certain rigour of prayer and fasting even on those less accustomed to the spiritual life. More important than the exorcisms he performed were those who managed to take a small or large step towards repentance and conversion, and there were many of them.

The faithful who came to the church where Father served were mainly from Bucharest, but also from other places. Those from the village did not come much and did not appreciate him, except for a few old ladies. Interestingly, unlike other living confessors who were known and about whom the Orthodox press had published various articles, one could only hear about Father Vasile “by word of mouth”, only informally. It was only later that I learned that Fr. Vasile had avoided any kind of relationship with the press, even in Orthodox circles.

However, his many and outstanding harisms attracted great envy and enemies both seen and unseen: from the banning of Molitves and the attempted poisoning by a village witch to threats from the devil during exorcism prayers.

At 80, as old as he was when I met him, Father Vasile impressed me with his extraordinary vitality. He wasn’t one of the soft-hearted fathers. His temper was fierce, his voice full of strength, especially during the Molitves. You felt you were dealing with someone who was no longer frightened or intimidated by anything human or satanic, you felt you were dealing with a fighter who, at 80 years of age, could “take on” even the young with his energy.

To some of the faithful, Father Vasile seemed at first to be harsh or austere. But this harshness was in fact accompanied by a great love, which all those who came to him sincerely felt and which they now miss the most.

Father Vasile helped me a lot. He was the best friend I ever had.

I have not the slightest doubt that you are resting with the Saints, Father!

(Petra Bircescu, spiritual daughter)