“If someone takes you out of the Church, stay under the eaves of the Church”
It was the Saturday before Pentecost 1988. We were preparing to go to Sibiu. Brother Martin brought me a ticket for Brother Traian. The note asking for medicine from abroad was from a sister in Oradea who had been told by her doctor that she would lose her eyesight if she didn’t find the medicine urgently. On the Sunday after the end of the programme, I gave the note to Brother Traian to take care of.
I stayed with my brother for a while. Groups of brothers came with various problems. Two of them stick in my mind. One group said that their priest wouldn’t let them sing the songs of the Lord’s Army, and another that he wouldn’t let them speak in church. Brother Traian knew where they came from and told them:
– If the priest doesn’t let you sing, don’t sing; if the priest doesn’t let you speak, don’t speak; and if he takes you out of the church, stay under the eaves of the church.
The tradition of bringing gifts to the sick
During his time in the diocese of Beiuș, Brother Traian had the idea of making a savings book. In this book we put 25 lei every month: Br. Traian, Br. Vasile Pavel, Br. Aurel Pavel and Br. Nicolae Ille. The book will be in the name of Br. Nicolae and will be kept by Brother Nicolae. Nicolae will put this money in every month and he will take it out. Once Br. Traian asked me how much money was in the book. I told him that 900 lei had been collected. Then Br. Traian told me
– Brother Nicolae, take it all and buy apples for the sick in the two hospitals, Ștei and Nucet.
At that time there were 600-700 patients in these hospitals. And today there are up to 600 mentally ill people. Brother Traian told me:
– Brother Nicolae, when you retire, I think you know what to do.
Traian, and I learned from each of them what I needed to learn. I want to tell you that the tradition of taking gifts to the sick is still alive today.
(Testimony of Nicolae Ille – In memoriam Traian Dorz. Testimonies 20 years after his passing into eternity, edited by Corneliu Clop, Oastea Domnului Publishing House, Sibiu, 2009, pp. 203-204)