Ioan D. Sandu, the intellectual Confessor

He was one of the most respected intellectuals in the theological environment of Sibiu, gathered around Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan, teacher at the “Gheorghe Lazăr” High School, at the Theological Academy of Sibiu, since 1922, at the “Mihai Viteazul” High School in Alba Iulia, then, since 1932, at the Orthodox Normal School in the Ardelean Metropolitan Centre.

He was one of the initiators, then President of the Romanian Orthodox Fraternity of Sibiu, Cultural Advisor of the Archdiocese of Sibiu, positions in which he was intensely involved in missionary work among the student and intellectual circles of Sibiu, being a permanent ferment of Christian witness and education. He served as Under-Secretary of State for Religious Affairs in the Second Antonescu Government (1941-1942), where he acted resolutely to preserve and promote the ancestral faith at a time of great trials. For this dignity, Professor Sandu was arrested by the communist authorities installed after 1945, who put him on trial, but he was acquitted.

However, on the night of 5-6 June 1950, he was arrested again and sent to Sighet prison. He died on 8 May 1955, after an investigation and torture in prison.

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Lumina Newspaper)