Father Vasile Stoleru – a martyr of the Bukovina’s Church
Vasile Stoleru was born on 30 January 1907 in the Bukovina commune of Davideni, Storojineț County, in the family of Ilie and Maria Stoleru. He attended the elementary school in his native village and in 1920, after passing the differential examination, he enrolled in the second class of the “King Ferdinand I” Gymnasium in Storojineț. In 1927, in order to help his brother, he interrupted his studies and took a job as a teacher in his home village. He lost two years and completed his secondary education in 1929[1]. Between 1929 and 1934 he studied at the Faculty of Theology in Cernăuți, graduating with a thesis on “Pastoral Care of the Poor”[2]. At the same time he was an active member of the “Dacia” Society, of which his brother Dimitrie was president.
On 14 January 1934, he married Viola Păuș, the daughter of a church singer from Budeniț, in the county of the same name. Suceava, who will give birth to three children. Later he was ordained assistant priest in the parish of Botușanița, Rădăuți County (now Suceava), where he remained until 1935, when he became assistant priest in Budeniț. In 1940 he was transferred to the parish of Carapciu pe Siret, Storojineț County, from where, in June of the same year, he had to take refuge in Mitocul Dragomirnei, Suceava County. He returned to Carapciu in July 1941, but only until March 1944, when the Soviets finally occupied the area. My father took refuge with his family in Avrig, Sibiu County, until 1945, when he found a place as a priest in Ițcani, Suceava County, until 1946. From there he served for one year in Drăgoești and finally settled in Bălăceana, Suceava County[3]. Here he served as parish priest until his arrest.
Arrested for his faith
On the night of 15-16 July 1959, Father Vasile Stoleru was arrested by the Securitate and sent to the MAI prison in Suceava. At the same time, between 1.15 and 5 a.m., his house was searched and several files and notebooks were confiscated[4].
According to the documents found in the criminal file, the first interrogation took place on 19 July 1959, between 7.30 and 15.00, during which he was questioned about his personal details, relatives, professional training, political background and “hostile activities against the RPR” – the last point he categorically denied. Three days later, the interrogators insisted on his father’s political activities before 23 August and forced him to confirm his participation in the Legion’s politics. The father again denied any involvement in his political activities, admitting that in 1940, at the insistent request of the mayor of Mitocul Dragomirnei – Daniș Remus – who was a legionnaire, he had consecrated the premises of the cooperative in the commune[5].
The first accusations, on the basis of which the priest was charged, were made in the indictment of 5 August 1959: “The investigation documents show that, since 1950, Stoleru Vasile has trained a number of legionaries from Bălăceana Com., such as Busuioc Constantin, Busuioc Ioan, Sasu Mihail, Tudosi Niculae and others, to carry out a series of works of a legionary nature, such as the fencing of the communal cemetery, the planting of trees in the garden of the church in Bălăceana Com., works in which he personally participated. He also maintained contact with some of these legionaries, holding services for former legionary leaders in the county. At the instigation of some of the aforementioned legionaries, Stoleru Vasile commemorated the former king and his mother in the church, delivering a series of sermons of a legionary nature. Until his arrest, the alleged perpetrator also made a number of hostile statements against the democratic regime in our country”. In fact, these were just preparations for the consecration of the church by Metropolitan Sebastian Rusan on 3 June 1951. For this, the priest was found guilty and punished under Article 209, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. However, on the same day, when he was interrogated, Father Rusan denied all these accusations point by point[6].
In this situation it is quite clear how, for the Securitate in the 1950s, any activity in and for the Church was classified as “legionary work”. Anything that “undermined” the security of the regime or the smooth running of activities ordered by the Party and closely supervised by the repressive bodies was labelled “legionary”. With all this ineptitude on the part of the investigators, the case of Father Vasile Stoleru had to be proved as one “hostile to the regime”. From now on, all the investigations that will be recorded will be aimed precisely at proving these ineptitudes, as stated in the indictment.
Thus, in the memorials given by Father Stoleru during the Holy Liturgy, the deceased Legionary leaders were added to those of the former Sovereign and his mother, initiated in 1956 by the faithful Tudosi Nicolai, who had left a memorial list with their names: Dumitru, Mihai and Elena. From here, in order to obtain solid evidence, the investigators turned to several witnesses, including the priest Ioan Furnică, who was tortured in such a way that he could not even sign the interrogation report[7].
He also refused to admit that his sermons had any legionary content. Although Dumitru Potorac, the cantor, “admitted” as a witness that in 1953 the priest had said in his sermon: “Be patient, have faith, do not lose hope, because things will not last much longer as they are and will change”[8].
However, the most serious accusation in the eyes of the investigators was the priest’s attitude towards the work that had to be done in agriculture according to the Party’s instructions. In fact, this seems to have been the motive for the priest’s arrest, with all the other accusations only contributing to the most serious charge.
Thus, according to the testimony of the witness Ilie Cormoș, the priest had encouraged several “legionnaires” to “carry out a series of legionary works, such as the fencing of the old and new cemeteries, the planting of trees in the church garden and others, works that he carried out from 1949 to 1956-1957”. In addition, the same witness claimed that Father Stoleru “consecrated a fountain built by the legionaries I have shown above (Busuioc Constantin and Tudosi Nicolai)”. And as for the attitude towards agricultural work, the priest would have urged the people “not to go out to plough and sow on certain holidays; he would give sermons in church urging people not to go out to plough, saying that man sows all week in the field, and on Sundays and other holidays he must sow in church”[9].
On 12 September, it seems that the last investigation was a confrontation with Tudosi Nicolai, which did not reveal anything new, but on the contrary confirmed what Father Stoleru had said in previous investigations[10].
Tried for belonging to the Legionaries
Thus, Father Stoleru was put on trial together with the faithful Tudosi Nicolae, Busuioc Constantin and Cojocaru Petre. In fact, they were close to the church where Father Stoleru was the parish priest, with whom he had initiated several activities aimed at the smooth running of the parish. For this activity, considered “legionary”, they were labelled as members of the illegal religious group “Lord’s Army”.
On 22 October 1959, while travelling to Botoșani, the priest was questioned as a defendant in the case brought against him by the Suceava Military Tribunal. During this interrogation, the priest “admitted” all the charges against him, but signed with a barely legible signature, which shows that he had been tortured[11].
On the same day, Fr. Vasile Stoleru was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour by judgement no. 603 to 10 years’ hard labour and 7 years’ deprivation of civil rights for the “crime of conspiracy against the social order”, provided for and punished by Article 209, paragraph 2, letter a of the Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 209, paragraph 2, letter b, paragraph B of the Criminal Code, with confiscation of personal property[12].
In view of this conviction, Father Stoleru lodged an appeal against his sentence in Botoșani Prison. In support of this request, the defence presented as evidence a report of Father Stoleru’s activities for June 1953, from the parish of Bălăceana, which states, among other things “In parallel with my duties as liturgist and hierurgist, on every Sunday and feast day, as well as on other welcome occasions, I have taken the time, in the sermons I have preached and in connection with the evangelical precepts of the Gospel of the day, to enlighten the faithful on the duties they have to fulfil in tending the crops, a work of overwhelming importance on which depends the entire harvest so long awaited by the workers. He who works is a man who honours God, a fighter against evil, against sin and against silence, a defender of peace and at the same time a fighter for peace; he is a faithful servant of the Lord of peace, a servant of God!”[13].
To this was added a certificate issued by the Deanery of Suceava on 27 November 1959, which stated that “according to the Regulation on the Organisation of the Church, the priest of a parish, together with the council and the parish committee, is obliged to take care of the repair and maintenance of churches and cemeteries, to keep minutes and to draw up documents for control purposes (art. 47 of the Regulation)”[14]. This document only categorically contradicted the qualification of the activities initiated around the parish church as “legionary work”.
However, on 2 December 1959, the Military Tribunal of the Second Region, College of Appeals, rejected Father Vasile Stoleru’s appeal as “unfounded”, with decision no. 2961[15].
After his final sentence, Father Stoleru was sent to the prisons of Botoșani, Jilava (March 1960) and Aiud (1960), where he was subjected to the extermination regime, despite the fact that he was ill, according to the certificate of 18 July 1959, when he was diagnosed with an “ulcerative disease”[16].
It was in the latter prison that my father met his end. According to the medical report after his death, we learn the following “The prisoner C[ontra]R[evolutionary] Stoleru Vasile, aged 53, son of Ilie and Maria, was admitted to the hospital of the 0622 Aiud formation from 10 December to 12 December 1960 with the diagnosis: inoperable stomach cancer, acute post-haemorrhagic anaemia, cancer of the caecum […][17]. He was interned at the training hospital from 3 September 1960 to the beginning of December. After examinations he was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach. An exploratory […]17 examination was carried out and an inoperable stomach tumour was found. His general condition gradually deteriorated. The patient had repeated […]17, which stopped after haemostatics and transfusions – he was admitted to the chronic ward. On the eve of admission, he had repeated massive […]17, after which he went into haemorrhagic shock and died. Cause of death: stomach cancer and acute post-haemorrhagic anaemia”[18].
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Rost Magazine No. 34, December 2005, pp. 54-56)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Unpublished sources:
ATMTI, Criminal fonds, file 4750/Iași, vol. 1, 3;
Short biography prepared by Mr. Mihai Hinescu, nephew of Father Stoleru, accompanied by various personal documents, sent on 28 August 2003 to the Romanian Patriarchate, Romanian Martyrology Commission.
General works:
CARAVIA, Paul coord, The Imprisoned Church. Romania, 1944-1989, INST, Bucharest, 1999;
IONIȚOIU, Cicerone, The Golden Book of Romanian Resistance against Communism, vol. I, Hrisovul, 1995;
MANEA, Vasile, Orthodox Priests in Communist Prisons, 2nd edition, Patmos, 2001;
“Memoria, the journal of arrested thought”, no. 24, June 1998, pp. 135-141.
[1] Short biography by Mr Mihai Hinescu, grandson of Father Stoleru, sent on 28 August 2003 to the Romanian Patriarchate, Romanian Commission of Martyrology.
[2] Licence in Theology, dated 6 July 1943, issued by the University of Cernăuți to the graduate Vasile Stoleru, copy sent by Mr Mihai Hinescu on 28 August 2003 to the Romanian Patriarchate, Romanian Martyrology Commission.
[3] Short biography prepared by Mr. Mihai Hinescu, nephew of Father Stoleru, sent on 28 August 2003 to the Romanian Patriarchate, Romanian Martyrology Commission.
[4] Archive of the Territorial Military Tribunal of Iasi (hereafter ATMTI), Criminal fonds, file 4750/Iași, vol. 1, f. 210, 214.
[5] Ibidem, f. 222-223v.
[6] Ibidem, f. 220, 224-224v.
[7] Ibidem, f. 225-227, 239-240. Father Furnică had been a fellow student of Vasile Stoleru at Cernăuți.
[8] Ibidem, f. 231-232v.
[9] Ibid, f. 237-238v.
[10] Ibid, f. 244-245v.
[11] Ibid, f. 303.
[12] Ibid, f. 315-321v. The other defendants in the lot were farmers who had been convicted of criminal penalties for not paying quotas and refusing to enter the “agricultural terraces”.
[13] Ibid, f. 337-337v.
[14] Ibid, f. 338.
[15] Ibid, f. 340-341.
[16] Ibid, f. 248; vol. 3, f. 39, 44. It seems that, before his arrest, the priest had undergone surgery for an ulcer.
[17] Illegible.
[18] Ibidem, vol. 3, f. 42, 43. About the death of the Father in Aiud in 1960 is mentioned in: Mărturisitori de după gratii. Slujitori ai Bisericii în temnițele comuniste, supplement of the magazine “Renașterea”, Cluj Napoca, 1995, p. 74; “Memoria, revista gândirii arrestate”, no. 24, June 1998, p. 138; Cicerone Ionițoiu, Cartea de oro a resistência românești contro il comunismo, vol. I, Hrisovul, 1995, p. 154; Paul Caravia coord., The Imprisoned Church. Romania, 1944-1989, INST, Bucharest, 1999, p. 371; Vasile Manea, Orthodox Priests in Communist Prisons, 2nd edition, Patmos, 2001, p. 240.