Ioan Ianolide – “a saint among men and a true man of God”
My encounter in this world with the wonderful man that was Ioan Ianolide is linked to the first seven years of my life, which I spent in my grandparents’ house, in a Bucharest neighbourhood on the edge of the lake “Balta Albă”. The memory I have of him is alive and deep, and the way my faith was structured and established has a strong connection with the way he taught me to get closer to God and to find Him as a guide in the joys and sorrows of life.
In my early years, I spent beautiful summers in several monasteries in the country, among which Govora, in Vâlcea County, and Putna, in Neamț County, remained very close to me. It was there that I had my first contact with the divine, and I remember with immense joy how I used to go singing in the meadows and on the surrounding hills, how I learnt to play the drum and then wanted to play the role seriously, going around the church, participating with great enthusiasm in the making of icons, the craft of which my grandfather knew, I remember how my grandfather taught me to make the sign of the cross with humility and devotion, how I walked in the morning through the dew in the courtyard of the Putna house, discovering the world of the village as well as that of the monastery. I always missed life in the village or in the country, because both my grandparents lived in the city. He still managed to give them to me on holidays, and I wonder what is more beautiful than discovering one’s origins once God has discovered them?
The first hour of confession and then the joy of receiving Holy Communion, the admiration for the nuns who made carpets during the war, and then the unimaginable privilege for a child of five or six to be able to say the Lord’s Prayer loudly and convincingly during the service are just a few of the memories I have of Ioan Ianolide.
I am grateful to him for the natural yet touching way in which he shaped my childhood, and although he was not my biological grandfather, I feel that he is the “father” of my life.
He left me a diary in which he wrote almost daily, with devotion and unimaginable joy, about how I was growing up, what I looked like, what mistakes I made, what sensitivities I had, or what fears he had for me.
Later, when I understood his life and the strength with which he devoted himself to God, without leaving him for a moment, I realised the turmoil that was going on in his soul about the kind of education that was more suitable for a child in the 80s, in the middle of the communist period. What was to be chosen between the constant inculcation of Christian values and the human urge to fight in a world of constant struggle and danger? How could a man at the same time have respect and compassion for the helpless, living close to the Christian parable, but also the strength to advance in society and live a decent life? I’m sure he never gave himself clear answers, but for me he managed to find a recipe with a fascinating mixture of being sensitive and fighting at the same time, keeping the engine of my mind and reason awake without the soul lacking the light and passion that can keep you alive in any circumstance.
The entrance to Odobești from the alleyway of my childhood still keeps his footsteps next to mine, and it sometimes happens that the bells start to ring when we light another candle in his memory. He was a saint among men and a true man for God. (Bucharest, April 2006)
(Ruxandra Ludwig – David – Returning to Christ by Ioan Ianolide, pg. 529-531)