Father Ilie Stan, a pillar of Romanian Orthodoxy martyred in Aiud prison
Late summer of 1962… The roosters crow a second time, announcing the approach of dawn over the sleeping Aiud. In the darkness of the night, a frightened owl, with eyes like Athena’s, leaves the prison watchtower in a hurry and circles the sad settlement with shrill cries that prophesy death… In a black cell, damp and cold, on filthy slats, lay five naked and pale bodies, crushed by torture and hunger during more than ten years of imprisonment… While four of the prisoners slept soundly, perhaps dreaming of their loved ones, of the cool fields and the freedom they longed […]