Fr. Nicolae Adam the confessor

He was born on 23 February 1891 in a simple family from Letea Veche, Jud. Bacău. He attended the “Veniamin Costachi” Theological Seminary in Iași, then, in 1915, he was appointed parish priest in Răcătău, Bacău county.

His zeal for pastoral and missionary work attracted the attention of the local state and party authorities, who did not accept religious manifestations. He was investigated several times, first in 1954, then in 1958, when he was arrested.

He was accused of “legionary activity”, the usual charge against Orthodox clergy, and then of “conspiracy against the social order” by undermining the “socialist transformation of agriculture”. The repressive authorities also took note of the material help given by Father Adam to German soldiers hiding in the Horgești forest near the village in 1945.

Although the accusations against him had no legal basis, on 24 September 1958 Father Adam was sentenced to 10 years of “correctional imprisonment”. Unable to resist the regime of imprisonment in communist prisons, he died in Galați prison on 10 November 1959.

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Lumina Newspaper, electronic edition of 13 February 2010)

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