Fr. Nicodim Măndiţă (en)

Sentence of conviction no. 38 of 22 January 1965

MILITARY TRIBUNAL BUCUREȘTI Case no. 310/1964 SENTENCE NO. 38 Today, 22 January 1965 The Military Tribunal of Bucharest, sitting in the town of Târgu Neamț, Bacău reg., constituted according to law: PRESIDENT: Lieutenant Colonel of Justice ALDEA MATEI Ases. Popular: Captain Ene Eugen Ases. Popular: Captain Ene Gheorghe Military Prosecutor: Captain of Justice Duma Gheorghe Secretary: Captain of Justice Bozaș Teodor, convened in public session, in accordance with the legal provisions, for the purpose of hearing the case concerning the accused: Civ. MĂNDIȚĂ NICOLAE, born on 14.10.1889 in Bunești commune, Curtea de Argeș county, Argeș reg., son of Ioniță and […]

Apostle under communism: Father Nicodim Măndiță

Fr. Nicodim Măndiță is one of the people who considerably broadened the concept of the “elite”. For “thin” intellectuals, the work of Fr. Nicodim is quite difficult to digest, being considered by some as too simplistic, even childish. But few of his critics have been able to bring so many souls to the path of faith, whom he urged to do something that, unfortunately, too few Orthodox believers do: to read seriously the books of Christian doctrine in order to know, cultivate and defend the true faith.

The life of Father Nicodemus Măndiță

Protosyngellos Nicodemus Mandita was an astute defender of Orthodoxy and a missionary monk without equal in our contemporary monasticism. This most holy priest was born in the village of Bunesti, Arges County, to pious parents. Between 1916 and 1918 he took part in the First World War, and in 1920 he made his monastic vows in the Măgura-Bacău hermitage. In the summer of the same year he was ordained a priest. Between 1921 and 1923, he was a missionary priest in the village of Frumoasa-Bacău. Then, for another two years, he was confessor in the convent of the nuns of […]

A unique case of rural pedagogy: Father Nicodim Măndiță

Born on 26 October 1889 in the village of Bunești, Zărnești commune, Argeș county, Nicolae Măndiță, the son of a ploughman, was interested in reading from an early age, especially religious one, the only one available in his rural environment. In search of it, as he grew older, the child came to Bucharest to buy books. Abbot Simeon of the Darvari Hermitage in the capital recalls that he would stop here to read even the press, always taking notes on what he had read. At the end of his military service, he rejoined the army, took part in the war […]

Father Nicodim – “a holy priest, surrounded by thousands and thousands of angels”

In our house, since 1954, Father Nicodemus tried to set up a small workshop for binding religious books, and from 1956 to 1964 he worked in full swing. We used to bring books from Bucharest, from the group that Father had there, and together with some people of good faith, we worked in series, that is to say, after we had brought some booklets, some consignments, we began to bind them; and when we had finished binding them, according to a certain schedule, we transported them to wherever Father found it convenient. And again we brought paperback books from Bucharest, […]

Father Nicodim Măndiță – the priest who made “a spiritual revolution”

Father Nicodim Măndiță won the world through pamphlets and confessions. (…) The best canon Father Nicodim gave was that after giving you half a day to meditate on sins and write them down, he would give you another quarter of an hour to remember other sins, and then he would give you the final confession. Some were like this in the first part, some in the second part, some in the final confession. People seemed to fly out of his door. The basic canon, apart from the reading, were the prostrations. He didn’t give many. He also gave days of […]