Ioan Ianolide (en)

In the autumn of 2012, Mrs. Constanța Ianolide, the wife of Ioan Ianolide, the legatee of Valeriu Gafencu, visited Putna Monastery. We asked her to tell us a few words about her husband. Ionel was released from prison on 2 August 1964. On 2 March 1965 he came to visit my mother, whom he had met a few months earlier. That’s how she met me. It was a visit of a few hours and the next day she wanted to talk to me. We went for a walk in Herăstrau Park and he told me he wanted to marry me […]

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I am 64 years old. From 1941 to 1964 I was in prison, tortured and ridiculed, first under the Antonescu dictatorship, then under the communists. I confessed Christ all my life, and in 1944 I worshipped Him completely. I have always confronted materialism, whether bourgeois or communist. I have compared and confronted the Christian faith with Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and, of course, Talmudic Judaism. I have compared Orthodoxy with Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Neo-Protestantism. I’ve struggled with atheism. For about 5 years I was in total isolation, starving and naked. For more than 15 years I lived in communal rooms […]

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The soul soars high and blood drips from the wounds carved by chains. I had chains on my hands and feet. Not knowing how to protect ourselves – we learned later – they broke our ankles and hands as well. Great pain was to come later, for the wounds got infected. The van in which we were transported was smelly and filthy. We had travelled all night from Bucharest to Aiud. The train’s wheels squeaked and the bumpy ride came to an end. The van was unhitched and left at Aiud station. The guards appeared and ordered us to get […]

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By 1958, days of immense suffering, loneliness, hunger, isolation, disease and death had passed, but there were survivors. Some of the former Târgu-Ocna political prisoners were still in jail, those sentenced to less than ten years had been released. The international political situation was confused and gave the communists unchecked power in our country. No force had emerged after the war to oppose the Marxist-Leninist revolution, no idea had a chance to replace the materialist ideology, no personality was equal to the times. The age seemed crushed by Soviet ideology, revolution and armed power. *** One evening in the autumn […]

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It was July and we were still being told that we would not be released unless we were re-educated. In my condition I could only wait to die. But in the last days of the month hundreds of people began to leave every day. I was taken to the cell. I was given the personal rags I still had after more than 20 years in prison. I still didn’t know and didn’t believe that I would be released. But on 31 July I was given my release form and a train ticket to Bucharest. I was in a state of […]

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You tremble before the pious lovers of God! How many of them have not desired the monastic life? And how many have not unknowingly followed its path, fulfilling to the end their duty towards God and their fellow men! Some of them suffered for decades in communist prisons – humble devotees of unceasing prayer!

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One evening,[1] before dinner, a tall, handsome prisoner was brought into the room with a small ball under his arm and a handkerchief full of blood in his mouth: – You see him?” said the guard from the door of the room, “he’s been in prison for over twenty years and he’s sick, he needs a bed under the window! – My name is Ianolide Ioan, I’ve been in prison since 1941, when I was a student. I’m sick with tuberculosis, I spit blood, look,” he said, showing us his handkerchief, and continued: I also have another illness, I can’t […]

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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 […]

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In Aiud, in 1945, when Ioan Ianolide came to the cell where I was with Marin Naidim and told us, almost in tears, that he felt the need to be close to us, to share the same silent joys of the Saviour Christ – even though he had up to then been somewhat brave in the face of the challenges of the administration and had suffered the consequences – because we did not know how to proceed, I asked him to go to Valeriu and share with him the state and the desire of his soul. John thought we were […]

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In the 1980s I did my military training in Bucharest, in the militia. It was around the 23rd of August, when all the detachments of soldiers, militiamen and secretaries were mobilised to monitor the population. I was young and ignorant. I dreamed of a military career “for the good of the country and the party”. I had tried several times to enter the military academy, but I was not accepted. Instead, I never missed an opportunity to prove my devotion to the good of the country and its leadership… I remember that at that time I had to carry out […]

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In Aiud, in November 1954, Radu[1] fell ill in a cell on the third floor, on the north side. The illness began with the usual symptoms of influenza, but fever, sweating and a state of deep fatigue did not abate (…) Radu’s illness progressed. New symptoms appeared, including abdominal pain, which got worse and worse. (…) His fever was high. Mircea quickly took his thermometer and told him no more than “38-38 with…” (…)

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Mourning Constanța[1], I too would like to express my sorrow at the loss of my best friend. I found out late as I was out of town. I tried to get more news by phone, but I got the same answer: “You have the wrong number!” Anyway, it was too late, he was dead. I really wanted to catch him alive, maybe he would have something to tell me. And I would have had something else to say to him, but “His words: We’ll meet again, life doesn’t end here.” Valeriu told me, when I asked him about a “coat”, […]

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In the face of Ioan Ianolide’s confessions, any addition is superfluous. Words would be too empty, unable to contain their completeness. […] I met the aforementioned author after his release from prison in 1964. He was one of the few “colleagues” my father had in our house. The face of a saint, in which one could read the suffering of the tortures he had endured during an ordeal of more than 20 years in communist prisons, radiated kindness, gentleness, mercy and, above all, love, creating a special state of mind, both of peace and tranquillity, of resignation to the point […]

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Mrs. Valentina Gafencu, sister of the martyr Valeriu Gafencu (1921-1952) and fiancée of the Christian confessor Ioan Ianolide (1919-1986), still hopes for the rebirth of the Romanian nation. In fact, all her life she has seen things only from the perspective of salvation… (Gheorghiță Ciocioi) Did you live in the village of Ioan Ianolide? Yes, I did. When I visited Valeriu, through all the prisons he went through, I met his best friend, Ioan. In Galda they were in a kind of semi-liberty for a while. After a while, knowing Ioan better, we decided to get engaged. The engagement took […]

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I was born in Romania, and having lived in the religious atmosphere of my country, with its religious services and public traditions (carols, alms giving, religious servicies, Pentecost), with faithful grandparents and a pious mother, I had the feeling and the conviction that Jesus was present everywhere, that people met him both at the altar and in their souls, that he hovered in heaven with all his angels, helping us to sanctify and save ourselves. The relationship with Jesus was natural, intimate and permanent, life without Him was unimaginable. It seemed to me that this had always been the case […]

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Let’s go back to Aiud. The prison regime was harsh, the food wretched, the isolation harsh, the water in our cells freezing. The Major Magistrate terrorised us. No one, absolutely no power in the country or in the world supported us. Then we discovered Christ spiritually. Although we studied a lot, our main concern was our souls. We prayed a lot, we confessed to each other our state of mind and our striving for perfection. We became aware of our sins and wept bitterly for both our personal faults and the sins of the community. We have endeavoured to live […]

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From Gherla we went to Târgu Ocna with chains on our legs and handcuffs on our hands, all of us with sentences of more than 10 years. There they kept us in chains for another week and then took them off. Here we had other problems. Snitching, as it was called in the prison, was in full bloom. Many people died without being treated, just because they didn’t want to snitch on others, that is, bring others to prison. I knew names… but I can no longer remember them. […] But there were also outbursts of anger and the desire […]

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I had a fellow prisoner, Ioan Ianolide. You’ve heard of him, he wrote a book too. He was a saint in prison. After he was released, one day he called me and told me and Father Grigore Băbuș to go and see him. I saw him at home. He was lying on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, calm, serene, as he always was. We had two chairs next to his bed and he said to us: “I called you to say goodbye because I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I am going to die soon. I want […]

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We have mentioned Ion Ianolide. He was also one of the most respected prisoners, fully sharing Valeriu’s ideas. He survived the hardships of prison until 1964, when he was released after twenty-three years. He died in February 1986. He too played a special role in the lives of those with whom he shared his ordeal. He was always ready to help anyone, in word or deed. In my difficult moments, I found in him the source of wisdom and the strength to overcome them; he was a kind of alter ego of Valeriu. (Aristide Lefa – Fericiți cei ce plâng, […]

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