“Lord, get me out of here and I will lay my whole life at Your feet!”
I came to Târgu-Ocna in the spring of 1950, through the miracle of Our Lady.
In 1947, when I was arrested, I was a 5th year student at the Faculty of Medicine in Iași. I was arrested because I was in contact with a group of legionnaires at the Faculty of Medicine. In the autumn of 1949 I arrived in Pitești, where I was sent to the re-education camp. The first day I was beaten from half past seven in the morning until noon. Then others followed. I prayed to God all the time. One night I didn’t pray, and all my life I’ve blamed myself for that; if I hadn’t prayed more I would have collapsed. And during the beatings, I prayed all the time, “Lord, get me out of here and I will lay my whole life at Your feet! And He got me out.
After a week or two, I and others were taken to Văcărești. I had been suffering from kidney disease since Iași. Because I urinated blood, they thought I had kidney TB, but it was something else. The doctor in Pitești knew that I was sick and sent me to Văcărești.
While I was in Văcărești, about three batches came from Pitești and, after checking the lungs, he sent the sick ones to Târgu-Ocna and the others back to Pitești. They kept me, who didn’t have TB, for some reason. I prayed: “God, don’t send me back! I prayed a lot to the Mother of God and She helped me.
After I had been in Văcărești for a while and they didn’t send me there or there, one night I had a dream. I dreamt of the Mother of God telling me something, I don’t remember what, and I felt very guilty. In the rest of the dream I was in the courtyard of Văcărești, having been taken out with other colleagues. In the courtyard there was a cherry tree in blossom, on which some clothes were hung to dry. The yard was in the shape of a triangle, at the top of which was the sentry box that guarded us, and on the other side, at the base of the triangle, was the door through which we entered. The door opens and a guard enters:
– Who is Lungeanu?
– I am.
– Pack your bags and go!
I woke up. I wondered what this dream was all about.
In the morning we went for a walk. In the yard, as in the dream, the guard in the meadow and the cherry tree with the clothes hanging from it. The door opens and the guard enters:
– Who is Lungeanu?
– I am.
– Pack your bags and go!
Just like in the dream. That day I was trapped and I arrived in Targu-Ocna, where I stayed for three and a half years. By a miracle, the Mother of God took me out and instead of sending me to Pitești, She took me to Târgu-Ocna.
(Testimony of Fr. Mihai Lungeanu in Holy Prisoners, edited by Fr. Moise Iorgovan, Reîntregirea Publishing House, Alba Iulia, 2007, pp. 157-158)