Marcel Cazacu (en)

“I was very pleased that I could lay this suffering at the feet of Christ”

This May, Lăcrămioara Varga wishes you a new edition of “We ourselves”. What season is better than late spring, with its fresh trees, bright green, flowering acacia and chestnut trees? What setting could be more inviting for a Proustian journey in search of lost youth? We know only too well that youth is not so much about biological life or the number of birthdays as it is about the life of the soul. As the latter is measured in eternity, here, dear mortals, is the chance of eternal youth on earth. But how much do we know how to value […]

The power of imprisoned faith: Marcel Cazacu

Marcel Cazacu was born on 18 April 1930 in the town of Rădăuți, the son of Artemisia and Gheorghe Cazacu. His father was an ardent patriot who ran after Iancu Flondor to listen to his word. On a white horse, he rode through the villages of Bukovina with the other unionists, spreading the idea of uniting Bukovina with the motherland. It was in this atmosphere of respect for traditions, faith in God and love of country that Marcel grew up and entered school life at the Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Gymnasium in Rădăuți, where he was one of the bright lights. In […]

Marcel Cazacu had no other goal than moral perfection

When we woke up on Christmas Day[1], 15 of us young people were surprised to see that Santa Claus had visited us during the night and put a package of goodies next to our bedpost. We also found the halva, which we had forgotten what it looked like. Santa Claus was Marcel Cazacu from Rădăuți, a very young, intelligent and selfless student. The child had fallen ill with a heart condition at the Canal and had no other goal than moral perfection. Just before Christmas, he received a parcel from his family. Although parcels were very rare, Marcel Cazacu shared […]

Marcel Cazacu – a wonderful man

The one who won me over at first sight and stayed in my heart for life was Marcel Cazacu. He was a handsome young man, with big, penetrating eyes, piercing and easy to anger, but with a goodness and generosity of soul. God was kind to him, endowing him with beautiful qualities and a will of rare strength in the face of oppressors and torturers. This explains why, after being sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, he served additional years in dungeons and forced labour camps. His intransigence and his desire to always hold his head high, without making the slightest […]

Marcel Cazacu – the man who approached perfection

On the 23rd of January 1957, I left the prison to go to Răchitoasa in Bărăgan. […] We were accommodated by Ion Vorovenciu, an economist from Rucăr-Muscel, where my friend Alfred Cureliuc was also staying. After waking from a deep sleep, I went with Alfred to meet Marcel Cazacu. Originally from Rădăuți, Marcel was only a year younger than me, a handsome, intelligent, even shy and serious young man, much older than his years. I realised that evening that he was a very special man. Later I was to find out that he – like me – felt that we […]

From high school to communist dungeons and in romanian Siberia

Arrested on 28 May 1948, in the most massive wave of political arrests, from the benches of the grammar school where I was in the penultimate class, together with seven other classmates, after months of investigation in the Suceava prison, I was sentenced in March 1949 to 8 (eight) years of hard labour and 10 (ten) years of civil servitude for “the crime of incitement against the social order”, art. 209, para. 3 The labels of “mystic” and “fanatic” applied to me by the Security Service, as well as the fact that I was permanently hostile to re-education actions and […]