Priest Ioan Berghian – “beautiful, cultured, serene and honest character”

I met him around 1933, he was a teacher in Petroșani. Beautiful character, reliable man as a teacher. Respected and appreciated, cultured, calm and honest. After the last hunger strike in Aiud, more than 100 people were taken to Gherla prison as punishment. About a year later, on his return, Professor Gheorghe Manu called me in Morse code: “I had a hard time, a harsh regime. I met a great priest there: Ioan Berghianu, a teacher in Arad”. So I found out that he was also in prison.

Later I met him in the same cell. He was weak and his nerves were shaken. But how much common sense, still remained in this chosen man!  His illness did not prevent him from remaining what he was: an excellent man.

(Fr. Nicolae Grebenea – Memories from the Darkness, 2nd completed edition, Scara Publishing House, Bucharest, 2000, pp. 270, 339)