Ilie Tudor’s prisons
He was 35 years old when he was arrested by the communist authorities. Sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment, he passed through the hell of Craiova, Aiud and Balta Brăilei prisons. There he had the opportunity to meet the titans of Romanian theology and culture: Father Dumitru Stăniloae, Radu Gyr, Nichifor Crainic and Petre Țuțea. Today, at the age of 87, Ilie Tudor is proud of his memories. He has even been awarded the Patriarchal Cross for laymen.
For the people of Podari, Ilie Tudor is already a legend. He is the type of the authentic Oltean, a lover of art, of beauty, a fine keeper of folk traditions, which he has carefully passed on to his son Gheorghe. The artist Tudor Gheorghe.
Although he started a quiet life and managed to raise a family, he was not spared from the storms of the time, but he did not give in to them. Good at religion, as he remembers being as a child, the priest placed him in the church of Podarii Craiovei when he was in the fourth grade, where he remained for more than half a century. His talent, his intelligence, but above all his love for the saints led him to attend the school for singers, from which he graduated with the highest average. He was forced to take charge of the local Utopian choir and, because he went to church with them, he fell into the crosshairs of the Communists. Arrested at the age of 35, he was imprisoned in Oltenia, from Craiova to Aiud, and then in Balta Brăilei prison, together with several priests and people from other professions. Behind the black curtain of his 22-year sentence, the singer from Podari expected to find nothing but a swamp of despair. But as God does not let His righteous see the damage, for Tudor, as his “cellmates” called him, the years of imprisonment became a gain. Today he considers himself a happy graduate of the “black faculty of Aiud”, as his son, the rhapsode Tudor Gheorghe, calls him from time to time. Here he had as “teachers” the greatest representatives of the golden elite of his generation: Father Dumitru Stăniloae, Radu Gyr, Nichifor Crainic, Vasile Militaru and Petre Țuțea.
From his bread for his fellow sufferer
Ilie Tudor first met Father Stăniloae in Aiud. After a hard time in prison, he was taken to a very large room with several other prisoners. It was the time of the extermination and there were about 200 people there, who braved the cold by warming each other: “Then we, who only met for walks, all found ourselves in one room, about 200 people. What a joy! People who hadn’t seen each other for so long! On the floor, the cement. I lay down like this. Next to me was a thin, shy old man. Although we were naked, I took off the pillow I had received from a friend in seclusion and gave it to him to lie under. I didn’t know that he was Father Stăniloae. I spread out his coat. Father smiled at me warmly and asked me what my sentence was. I replied that they had given me 22 years, and when I asked him, he pointed to the sky, as if to say: “God knows! He was weak, they carried him by his hands because he could hardly move,” recalls Tudor. When he found out who his fellow sufferer was, he couldn’t leave his side. “One of the people I knew said to me, ‘Man, do you know who that old man is sitting next to you? It’s Father Stăniloae!” I couldn’t believe it. Can you imagine, we still let the priest sit on the floor? We were young, 35 years old, and together with six or seven colleagues we formed a group. We decided to help the weakest among us. We talked about giving the priest at least two or three more slices of bread. He took it and thanked us for a day or two, but in the end he didn’t want to take any more so as not to endanger us,” says Ilie Tudor.
“The black university of Aiud”
For two weeks, the time it took for the fumigation, the man from Podari had the opportunity to listen to Father Stăniloae speak. And now he keeps in mind the radiant image of the great theologian who, while the cold cement froze them to the marrow of their bones, warmed their souls with his words: “When Father Stăniloae was speaking, did you have time to feel the cold or hunger or other thoughts?” There I finished, as Tudor Gheorghe still tells me from time to time, “the black university of Aiud”. Why did I need a teacher when the priest spoke? At what level and with what warmth he spoke! I looked at him: he was weak, but what a light he had in his eyes! It was as if a warmth came from him when he spoke! There, on the frozen cement, in need and suffering, the spirit stood above matter. When the priest was tired, other wise and spiritual voices kept the flame of faith burning, so that the frozen bodies were also warmed by the warmth that moved their souls: “When the priest was tired, another would intervene, for example Professor Mironescu, from the Burning Bush, or Radu Gyr, Nichifor Crainic. How could you be cold or hungry? The curfew would be announced, and then they would quietly sing ‘God is with us’ or other religious songs,” recalls Tudor.
“Stăniloae radiated a love for all”
It was already customary for the teacher to read the Gospel pericope every day: “If it was a Sunday, they would talk about the Gospel of that Sunday, and the same on the other days. I knew it too, others knew it too, but when Father Stăniloae spoke, everyone was silent and listened as if they were in church. He was held in very high esteem and each of us did not know what to do and how to help him, but he was of a rare modesty, he did not want to receive anything. He was so modest and understanding. He had a light in his eyes and a love for everyone that I only understood later. What can I say about this great personality, this great theologian of Orthodoxy? I spent two weeks in his room!”
“I didn’t know that I could sing the Resurrection Liturgy by heart”.
The most uplifting moments he experienced were on the night of the Resurrection, also in Aiud, when everyone celebrated Mass in his cell: “There were three bishops, one Greek Catholic and two of us. I hadn’t realised until then that I knew the Resurrection Mass by heart. They were giving the blessing on a table with clean cloths. I closed my eyes and saw the Pentecost service, I even had the colour of the letters in my head. As soon as the blessing was given, I began to sing. I didn’t know that I could sing the Resurrection Liturgy by heart.”
They didn’t want to die
Among the most terrifying days Ilie Tudor experienced in the hell of communist prisons were his 40 days in solitary confinement. He ended up there because he was caught playing chess with his cellmate on a chessboard drawn on a handkerchief with improvised pieces of bread. The big prize the torturers rewarded the two prisoners with was 40 days in prison: “On St. Nicholas’ Day they put me in solitary confinement and didn’t let me out until 40 days later. For two days they didn’t give you anything to eat except hot water, and on the third day they gave you cell food. I was physically exhausted, but I scratched a cross on the wall of my cell and prayed. When I felt I couldn’t stand it any longer, I would put my fists behind my back and sit down, and when I felt I was going to fall (for the torturers our falling was like a blessing), I would get up. Forty days and forty nights we marched those eight metres. In the morning, the carali, who always came dressed very thickly, with boots on his feet and a shabby hat, would look at me through the peephole, and I would smile. They wondered: How come they don’t die? How do they have so much power?” says Ilie Tudor.
His cellmate, his chess partner, was the priest Gornic from Arad. When they put him in solitary confinement, the priest was suffering from TB. Ilie Todur says: “In the next cell was Father Gornic from Arad, who had end-stage ganglionic TB. He was in such a state that he would get out of bed at three in the morning to pray. He had calluses on his palms, elbows and knees like the back of an ox. He prayed constantly. When I was in solitary confinement, we spoke in Morse code: “How are you, Father?”, “Tudore, I’m finished”. It lasted a day or two, and on the third day I heard him fall. They came and took him away, and when I went back to the cell we all thought he was dead. There was a monk there who, as soon as he heard that Father had died, began to commemorate him”.
The miracles of life after prison
In the reeds of Balta Brăilei, his nephew Ilie reunited with Father Gornic after more than two years of believing him to be dead: “Two years later, they took me to Salcia. We were divided into teams: some to mow, some to hoe, some to build. We had finished our work and were washing up. The man next to me said: “Tudore, look, here comes the building team. The one with the newspaper looks like Father Gornic”. I replied that he had died in Aiud, but when I approached them I froze. It was Father Gornic”.
After his release, the nephew, Tudor, met the father again while visiting his wife’s relatives in Arad. Only then did they finally experience the joy of being fully together.
He signed his works as “Poet Peasant”.
Ilie Tudor began writing poetry after falling in love with great Romanian literature. First he read Topârceanu, Vasile Alecsandri, then Goga and Lucian Blaga. Of all the poets he loved, Radu Gyr and Vasile Militaru were closest to his heart, people whose work he came into direct contact with in prison. In his youth he used the pseudonym “Poetul Țăran” (Peasant Poet). He wrote for “Gazeta literară”, “Oltenia literară”, “Albina” and flirted with the Radio Craiova studio. At a meeting of artists, he met the great Arghezi himself: “Arghezi had read some of what I had written, because a few days before some of my poems had appeared in “Gazeta literară”. He asked me where I got the inspiration for the metaphors in the poems. I replied that I got them from the church books”.
After the liberation, Ilie Tudor’s poetry was influenced by the people he met there, especially Radu Gyr and Vasile Militaru: “When I was with Crainic, with Father Stăniloae, with Radu Gyr, with these titans, it was a real faculty for me, because otherwise I would have remained a simple singer from Podari,” says elder Tudor.
Among the books published by Ilie Tudor are “De sub tăvălug” (Notes from the Communist Dungeons, a book published in 2003), “Cuvinte răstignite” (a book of poems, also published in 2003), “Mlaștina deznădejdii” (2006), and in 2007 the author published the book of poems “Gânduri din strana bisericii” (Thoughts from the Church). As a reward for his literary activity and for the sacrifice he made in communist prisons between 1958 and 1964, the poet, writer and singer from Podarii Craiova received the Patriarchal Cross for the Laity from Patriarch Theoctist.
“Ilie Tudor knew hatred, humiliation and torture. Perhaps as a reward, his son, Tudor Gheorghe, knew love and glory. God balanced the scales: so much suffering, so much joy,” said Jan Băileșteanu, a man of letters from Craiova.
“In the next cell was Father Gornic from Arad, who had terminal ganglionic tuberculosis. He was in such a state that he got up at three in the morning to pray. He had calluses on his palms, elbows and knees like the back of an ox. He prayed constantly. When I was in solitary confinement we spoke in Morse code: ‘How do you feel, Father?’, ‘Tudore, I’m finished’.
Ilie Tudor
“Ilie Tudor knew hatred, humiliation and torture. Perhaps as a reward, his son, Tudor Gheorghe, knew love and glory. God has balanced the scales: for so much suffering, as much joy”. (Jan Băileșteanu, writer)
(Deacon Ioniță Apostolache – Lumina Newspaper)