Nichifor Crainic (en)

Nichifor Crainic teasing Petre Țuțea

One of those who could still afford to make fun of Petre Țutea in Aiud, in the various cells where they lived, was Nichifor Crainic. And he had something to do with it: the bailiffs had him, and they had known each other for a long time. A professor of mysticism at the theological faculties of Chișinău and Bucharest, Nichifor Crainic had been arrested in 1947 by Antonescu, the Minister of Culture and Propaganda, and sentenced as a war criminal to hard labour for life. He had been Minister of Propaganda and against whom! After seventeen years in prison, his […]

Nichifor Crainic between hunger and hope

The dining hall is a chore that the militiaman will force you through. You enter through the back door, leave the canteen there and exit through the front door. I say hello to Professor Nichifor Crainic. – How are you, Professor? – Hungry, Daniel, hungry, that’s all! If only this story would end. Besides, when they searched me, they took my coat and my assholes. Aren’t hunger and mockery enough? Here I am naked. And winter is just around the corner. I heard Captain Mihăilă – the sub-director – say to the militiaman: “Here, comrade, take back my coat! He […]

With Nichifor Crainic in the hell of Aiud

I met Nichifor Crainic in the family of the architect I.D. Enescu, my uncle, who spent 13 years in prison, also in Aiud! Nichifor Crainic was a professor at the Faculty of Theology, a poet, a philosopher, a journalist; he was the editor of the magazine Gândirea, a major magazine which gave birth to the “gândirismul”, a current which was implanted in literature, art and philosophy. (…) In 1946 he was tried in absentia and sentenced to 25 years’ hard labour by Marshal Antonescu. He managed to hide for a year with the priest Sămărhițan in Ardeal. He was arrested […]

“He was a man who accepted the work, that of dishwasher, without considering it incompatible with his previous status as a leading intellectual”

I knew Nichifor Crainic. He was out of the Zarca and busy washing dishes. He was a controversial man, even reviled. He was accused of all sorts of things: that he was an informer; that he was an apostate who had renounced his faith for a ladle of food; that he had come to disgust even the torturers. I don’t know where the truth lies. What I do know is that I spoke to him, not once, that he was a man who accepted his work, that of a dishwasher, without considering it incompatible with his former status as a […]

Nichifor Crainic’s Call to Humility

As a result of his successful recovery from his operations, the sanatorium room that housed the poet’s despairs and hopes began to fill with countless visitors, many of whom opened their wallets wide and unexpectedly to make up for the money the family lacked to cover the costs of his hospitalisation and treatment, which far exceeded the modest salary of a university professor. This is how the memoirist’s conscience reflects the new situation. “When I was alone in my room, with my prayer book on my chest, I thought about all these things. God works through men, I would say […]

Nichifor Crainic, an accomplished orator in every field

Nichifor Crainic was a treasure, a vast storehouse of the purest grey matter. So many things from him have remained in my memory that have served to erase a good part of the suffering that has accompanied me all my life. One day, sitting at his desk, he told us a story that was a typical example of what “communist heaven” meant not only for our country but for the whole of humanity. He was in the Tsarist camp, under a regime of slow but sure extermination. Any movement or gesture that could be interpreted differently by the illiterate and […]

Nichifor Crainic, professor of mysticism in Aiud’s Zarca

I longed to be with Nichifor Crainic. His cultural prestige was immense. I regularly read “Gândirea”, the best magazine he published between the two wars. He was also a professor of mysticism at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest. Here I was with him, but not alone. There was also the distinguished doctor Aurel Marin, with whom I met again, a professor of philosophy, and someone else whose name I have forgotten. Crainic considered me close to him. In the bathroom, where several of us were together for 20-25 minutes, he would come under my shower to tell me what […]

Nichifor Crainic – the greatest Romanian Christian poet

He is the greatest Romanian Christian poet and one of the greatest Christian poets in the world. He was a university professor, a scholar and a journalist. His poetic work is complemented by his essayistic and mystical works. His university lectures lifted his listeners to heaven. Nichifor Crainic is the representative of traditionalism and Byzantine orientation. The Byzantine affiliation as a spiritual characteristic of the Romanian nation is structural and nobody can deny it. Neither the orientation towards French culture, nor the inclination towards German or Russian culture can match the strength with which our spiritual substance feels Orthodox-Byzantine. Nichifor […]