“If ever an intellectual deserved to be canonised, it is Vasile Voiculescu”

Fragment of an interview with Arch. Roman Braga, of the Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Detroit, USA.

[…]

With which great theologians have you been in prison?

From the first prison I don’t remember any great theologians, but I met many simple monks. You should know one thing: the Romanian peasant is a great theologian, and his justice, morality and integrity impressed me.

Intellectuals compromised themselves in prisons, but the peasant did not, because he was patient. He sat and watched, talked a little, thought a lot and remained incorruptible. But I remember Father CONSTANTIN GALERIU, who recently went to be with the Lord. In the peninsular colony on the Danube Canal I met many priests. I was involved in the “Burning Bush” process. The Burning Bush was not an association. The Antim Monastery was the centre. The Burning Bush was not a formal association, although it was later incorporated. It grew out of spiritual needs between 1944, when the Russians invaded the country, and 1948, when the first communist government was formed. We lived through an era of reversal of values, of total confusion. We didn’t know what was going to happen politically, and then the intellectuals of the University of Bucharest got together: Professor Bota, Alexandru Mironescu, who introduced the Department of Philosophy of Science, Vasile Voiculescu, the poet who was also a doctor at the Royal Palace, Paul Stelian, a poet, Father Stăniloae, who was our mentor, Father Benedict Ghiuș, an intellectual.

Were all these people involved in the process?

All of them – 16 people were in the trial. And, of course, the one who initiated it was Sandu Tudor, a poet and journalist (the newspaper “Grădinița”, the magazine “Flacăra de foc”), a convert from atheism, from a disordered life, to faith. He later became a monk at the Antim monastery and abbot of a hermitage in Rarău. After his conversion, Sandu Tudor began to search the Romanian archives, discovering Romanian saints, hermits in the mountains. He travelled to Mount Athos, from where he returned fully converted.

Last year was the 40th anniversary of the death of the poet Vasile Voiculescu. He volunteered to go to the front in the First World War. He wrote deeply Christian poetry. There has been talk of his possible canonisation. What do you think about it?

If any intellectual deserves to be canonised, it is Vasile Voiculescu. We speak of the prayer of the heart, of the current of Isaism, but I think that the only authentic hesychast was that civilian who was not a priest, known as the “Seraphic Poet”. He wrote some extremely valuable poems. They are based on the inner universe, which we neglect: man is an infinite reality, like an atom – you can’t get to the bottom of it. About this spiritual atom, the holy apostle Paul said: “We are the church of the living God, because God dwells in you”. Vasile Voiculescu captured this in his poetry.

A philologist who works at Radio Cluj, Florin Săsărman, sings these poems…

I’m glad that some Christian spiritual songs have been created, because Vasile Voiculescu is a great Orthodox intellectual. He is a saint. To give you one detail: he died in a small room, he didn’t light a fire, he sat on a chair all day long, meditating, writing, praying. Once the boy wanted to kill a spider: “Don’t touch the creature of God. I look at it all day and discover the fingers of God”. V. Voiculescu was deified while still alive.

Let’s come back to the subject of our discussion. In the second prison you were with V. Voiculescu?

No, but I know one thing: “Hey guys, put this tube of paste in my mouth when I die”. He was 75 years old and wanted to be identified; the tubes of paste were metal and didn’t dissolve. But God helped him to get out of prison and he died after a year.

(Extract from an interview conducted by Nicolae Iuga in August 2003 – Memoria Ethnologica Magazine, Year III, No. 8-9, July-December, 2003, pp. 842-843)