Fr. Marcu Dumitru (en)

Arrested again

Late one evening, after I had finished my obedience, I went to bed in my cell, which was above the cellar. And while I was in a state between wakefulness and sleep, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs leading to my cell. And suddenly the door slammed against the wall and several militiamen with a lieutenant colonel entered the cell. And they said to me, “Don’t move! You’re under arrest. They put me in one of their vans with Father Arsenie and others. I don’t know who the others were because we were blindfolded. They took us to Rădăuți, […]

“Here is the greatest confessor of Sihăstria!”

Father Cleopa Ilie received the blessing that in winter and on days when the weather was bad, he would retire and stay in one of the small cells of the beehive. He would bring in a massive wooden table and his most useful spiritual books. Father Mark lived next door. And since the old confessor was very happy to have such an invaluable adviser and helper, they set to work on the books together. Father Cleopa’s books were typed and then multiplied: Sermons for Monks, Sermons on Sundays, Sermons on Feast Days and Saints, Journey in the Orthodox Faith, On […]

Monk Mark Dumitru – facts and words of wisdom

This great ascetic was born in the commune of Hătcărău, Prahova County, into a blessed family of 13 children, and was named Constantine. When his father died in the First World War, his mother raised all her children alone. Later, having renounced marriage, Constantine finished school and dedicated his life to Christ, praising Him day and night. Since he was very zealous for the right faith and led many young people on the path of salvation, pointing them to Christ, he suffered much, being accused and thrown into prisons, where he suffered enourmeously. Through his patience and the mercy of […]

The cowherder from the monastery and the monk from the mountains

One day I went to a monastery near Bucharest. On a green path I was talking with the abbot[1], a man who grew up in a monastery, studied theology and is imbued with the monastic spirit. A herd of cows approached us and the abbot called out: – Hey, brother, I see you know what obedience is, but you have a long way to go before you learn what faith is! He was talking to the cowherder, a novice who had come to enter the monastery. I looked at him and shuddered. Meanwhile, the cowherder was running after a cow […]

Father Mark – a man of sacrifice

First of all, with Father Marcu (Costică Dumitrescu), we met in battle. We befriended each other; we befriended each other because we were very happy in a sacrifice, in a battle that demanded our blood in every way. He was 2-3 years older than me, but in the battle, in the tension of the heart for the ideal, age doesn’t matter. What matters is the movement, the heroism, the position. He was very resistant to suffering. They called him “the Fakir”, a name given to him by the Securitate of the time, during the reign of Charles II, because he […]

Father Mark Dumitru the Sufferer

Who is Father Mark? A blessed monk who was born on 12 September 1910 in the village of Hătcărău, Prahova County, as one of thirteen children of the Dumitru family. His parents were named Stere and Ana. At baptism he was given the name of Constantine, and later, when he entered monastic life, after having been in the prisons of three political regimes for more than 20 years, he became a monk at the age of 62, under the name of Monk Mark. His whole life was an uninterrupted series of sufferings and hardships, and the things written here are […]

The “Fakir”

The other day he told me that the prisoner had been stripped naked, with only his boots on his feet, and placed on a table with his hands tied. Those who beat him with long rubber batons from the side crushed his back, buttocks and leg muscles. Another legionnaire before him, Ursu, an engineer from Vrancea, had 100 iron spears implanted in his feet. But Constantine, because he did not speak, was beaten inumerable. “I counted up to 200, then I lost count. But I didn’t even whimper. But unlike Father Dimitrie Bejan, who was a priest and who was […]

In Bessarabia

“When Bessarabia was taken, I was arrested in Chișinău. And here, in the prison, I had a great blessing, because Mrs. Russo came, who had constant contact with the legionnaires in the prison. After the period of quarantine in the large room (about 12 metres by 12 metres) in the cellar, which was very damp, they sent us to the tower, where there was a great draught. So I should have been condemned for life, along with everyone else, but God took care of us. After the incident with Armand Călinescu, they started looking for the other people I knew […]

In the communist prisons

That was until the beginning of 1948. From that year on, everything changed. The legionnaires in the prisons were declared the greatest enemies of the communist state and a very harsh regime was imposed on them. And not only on them, but on all the enemies of the Bolshevik regime. Father used to tell me how he had experienced death again: “After being arrested a second time (and having passed through Galda and Ciugurdel), I was in Aiud around 1950-51. Here I was given rotten cucumbers and rotten maize meal left over from the army every day. When they ran […]

Aiud

He was tried and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. He was taken to Aiud with the other convicted legionaries. At that time, Aiud was an ordinary prison, with cells closed only at night. From the beginning, the prisoners were divided into three groups. The first group were those who wanted a political solution at all costs and wanted to know everything that was happening in the country. A second, smaller group were those who were narrow-minded and willing to compromise in order to get out of prison. And the third, smaller group were the “mystics”, those who understood that they […]

At Cernica

Immediately after his liberation, Constantine entered the monastery of Cernica, where he was received by the abbot and ordained to various ascetic practices. He was 46 years old. “When I was released, in 1956, through Father Benedict Ghiuș, I was given a note to the abbot of Cernica. The abbot told me to “go to the stable.” At the Cernica monastery I went to do obedience at the cattle, the pigs, the sheep, the greenhouse, and in the spring they gave me the vineyard and the garden to attend to. And because there was a great drought, I saw how […]

Văcărești Prison

From Huși they sent us to Văcărești, where we could still go out to get the necessary supplies. That is how we reached Ploiești, when they brought Lucian Caramlău and Gheorghe Ștefănescu, whom they had killed at Bod’. I was the first to stand guard at the Church of the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helena in Ploiești, next to the coffins of Lucian Caramlău and Gheorghe Ștefănescu (killed at Bod), crying profusely all the time. Lucian Caramlău was the leader of our group in Ploiești, and the authorities killed him because they thought there were others connected to Miti Dumitrescu’s […]

After getting released – Monk at the Sihăstria Monastery

At the end of July 1964, Brother Constantin Dumitru was among the last to leave Aiud. Those who, in one way or another, had received Colonel Crăciun’s re-education left early. And those who did not accept in any way to renounce Christ, family, nation, movement, were kept until the political prisons had to be closed down. From here, Brother Constantine went to Sihăstria. “When I came to Sihăstria, I felt some special spiritual states. I went to Father Ambrozie Dogaru and then to Father Paisie Olaru for a blessing. At Father Paisie I found a note on the door: I’m […]

The gates of eternity have also opened for Father Mark

On 28 February 1999 I went to Liturgy in the morning. I remember that it was the beginning of Lent and the whole monastery was in church. And at the time when the sixth hour was being read and the Holy Liturgy was about to begin, I saw Hieromonk Cyprian, the priest of the Sihăstria Monastery, going to the ark during the Holy Liturgy and retrieving a part of the the Holy Communion. Suspicious, I waited for him to come out of the altar of the chapel, and when I asked him, he told me that he was actually going […]

The Red Aiud

“After they sentenced me the last time and I got 25 years because I was one of the most resistant, I was in Aiud. I was on the 1st or 2nd floor, in the big T, 8 in a cell; you were not allowed to rest. You had to sit still or walk between the beds. And because I was one of the most resistant, I was constantly followed in the prison; they wanted to catch me with something. And because I had a very bad cold (I had a temperature of over 40 degrees), the brothers held me against […]

Serene, calm and warm-hearted face

Costică Dumitrescu[1], former Assistant to the Prahova County Chief, arrived in this TBC ward. Following his behaviour, a true martyr, during the investigation in Ploiești, when he did not even give his name, an atmosphere of great respect and trust was created. After all the suffering of so many bitter years in prison, I met him here again, with the same serene, calm and warm-hearted face that I had known 30 years before. Uncompromising in his faith and kind in his speech, he lived a spiritual life full of grace, because immediately after his release he retired first to the […]