Fr. Sofian Boghiu (en)

Father Sofian the God bearer

I met Emilian late one evening in the paradise of the convent, the place of our meetings. For a year and more, Avva came down every night at nine o’clock. He would leave the door ajar, just long enough to let out an eyelash so that I would know he was there. I was always late, and he waited with infinite patience. Sometimes I’d stop and look at him through the crack in the door. Father was waiting for me, praying. His eyes were closed, his right hand on his left breast, his head slightly bowed towards his shoulder, like […]

An Hesychast in the land of the absurd: Father Sofian Boghiu

For a young person today, to whom modern (post-) “civilisation” imposes the constant search for novelty, change, difference, monastic life, with its repetitions, can seem extremely monotonous. But if he would be patient and turn his face towards the Church, he would see that, far from being monotonous, “repetition” is in fact the path that opens unsuspected spiritual depths. Much has been written about Father Sofian Boghiu. It could not have been otherwise, since he embodied to such a high degree the original meaning of the word “monk” (ancient “beautiful”, improved). In a seemingly monotonous worldly existence, Father Sofian lived […]

Father Sofian – A gentle figure and a deep believer in the Lord

In Bucharest I was taken to another, brighter room with a bed and a prisoner in it. He had a beard and long hair, his eyes were serene and full of piety. At first glance he seemed to be a monk, even a hieromonk. Father Sofian Boghiu, a young virgin monk, dedicated his life to our Lord Jesus Christ and lived with several other young men in the seminary of Cernica until he was tonsured as a monk. He was one of the monk-priests who, immediately after the occupation of the country by the Red Army, turned the Antim Monastery […]

“The Beautiful Elder”

“For you are holy, our God, and in the saints You rest,” sings the holy Church in the service of the Matin. When we honour our fathers and brothers in the Lord, those who – among us – have been witnesses of true faith, true love and the joy of Pentecost, we glorify the Lord God Himself. But these people whom we honour, whom we remember with love as true followers of the Tradition of Christ and His Church, did not want to be respected, honoured or distinguished among others. They wanted only one thing: to make us love Christ […]

Father Sofian, the face of holiness

On the morning of the Feast of the Ascension of the Holy Cross, 14 September, as the Divine Liturgy was being celebrated, Father Sofian died in his cell at the Antim Monastery. In just three weeks, on 7 October, he would have been 90 years old. Sofian’s life was closely linked to that of Antim Monastery, of which he was abbot for more than half a century. He was confessor, priest, preacher and abbot. The only thing that took him out of the monastery was his obedience as a church painter. This did not happen very often in the last […]

“I never hated any of the enemies who oppressed us and I never regretted going to prison”

As you have a humble and subdued heart, you become more and more free inside and then God descends into you. Our purpose on earth is to fill ourselves with God. And the only way we can fill ourselves with God is through humility. Humility has to be the foundation of our lives. We are not fulfilled by cheap narcisism, but only by humility. To live in humility is to live a true life. And to live in pride is to live an artificial life. Therefore, whenever you are humbled, be patient and pray: ”Lord, accept these humiliations in place […]

Father Sofian the Gentle

In the service I attended, someone advised me to go to the Holy Monastery of Antim, where there were beautiful services, a wonderful choir and much peace. He assured me that I would enjoy it and have a good time. I arrived at the end of Vespers and there were only people waiting for Father Sofian to go to confession. I didn’t know the rules and I didn’t know Father Sofian. I walked nervously towards the icons to pray, and suddenly Father Sofian appeared and asked me with a warm voice: “Do you want to go to confession?” Confused, I […]

Father Sofian the Elect

This man was a saint. I had him as my confessor for 40 years. I miss this street, this place. I’m waiting to meet him. I wonder where Father Sofian is now? I pray for him every day. That’s how much I miss him! I pray for him because he helped me a lot in my life. I’m sure he’s alive. I pray to God to number him among the saints. I pray for all the fathers I’ve known: Father Sofian, Father Galeriu, Father Iachint, Father Cleopa, Father Paisie, Father Iulian – he was a great priest – Father Paulin […]

Father Sofian and Psalm 51

Wednesday, 11 August 1999, the day of the solar eclipse. In the morning I received a telephone call. They told me that the priest has had a concussion since last night, that he didn’t recognise anyone, he didn’t answer questions, he didn’t eat, he didn’t drink, he didn’t know anything, he kept saying Psalm 51. Twelve hours had passed since the priest had been in this state. After the doctors had left, Father sat at his bedside again, as he had done the day before, and said Psalm 50 again. He said it without stopping, softly but with determination. He […]

He didn’t talk much, he lived

I lived in Antim monastery. Without a shadow of doubt, I knew these people, I lived with them. I went to see Father Sandu Tudor, Father Daniel – I was in prison with Fr. Daniel, I went to his cell, which was in the bell tower. He was irresistible. Everyone admits that. You had to sound like him. I was impressed by his big room with books, all bound in thick leather. He asked me one thing: “Brother Anghele, are you crying?” Then I asked him: “But, Your Holiness, are you crying?” “I am weeping,” he told me. I said […]

Father Sofian – Teacher of Prayer

What impressed me about Fr. Sofian, ever since I arrived at Antim Monastery more than 60 years ago, was the attentiveness with which he read the homilies of the faithful. He almost identified himself with the needy person who asked him to pray for them or their loved ones. He met each one with great understanding and love, and took on their pain. I was also in the ”Burning Bush” convent. I did more of Martha’s work than Mary’s, but I noticed in Fathers Daniil and Sofian their eagerness to learn the prayer, silence and awakening of the spirit from […]

Father Sofian, the icon maker of our souls

When, as a student, I entered the premises of Antim Monastery for the first time in the spring of 1994, I was full of anticipation for the long-awaited meeting with Father Archimandrite Sofian Boghiu. I attended the Holy Mass and from afar, from the pronaos where I was sitting, I silently admired Father Abbot who was leading the Liturgy in a majestic and gentle way. I read that he had suffered hard years in the Communist prisons, that he had adorned his life with the beauties of Christian faith and wisdom, that he in turn had adorned the souls of […]

Father Sofian, our own St. Seraphim of Sarov

To be left without your confessor is the same as the time stood still. For a long time you perceive almost no thought. Later, feelings and longings boil and seek and implore. You don’t know whether to let the emptiness hurt too much or to rejoice and hope. To rejoice and hope, you must have the strength to slowly grasp the Anchor that is falling away but also pulling you up. Its fragrance embraces you and remains with you. It splits into thousands but remains whole. It remains whole and turns to each one the pale and gentle face of […]

“The light of the saints from beyond the ages was reflected on his face”

Father Sofian and I lived together for many years in the monasteries of Cernica and Antim in Bucharest. As seminarians we were two years behind him, but living in the same monastic community gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better. Brother Serghie (as he was called in the monastery) came from Bessarabia, which had not yet been taken over by the neighbours, from the Dobrușa monastery, a well-established monastery where the monks had a monastic school, learned trades – he had learnt church painting – and had a skilful spiritual father. His studies at the seminary […]

Memories about Fr. Sofian

The scene I am about to describe was told to my wife by a woman from a village near Neamț-Vânători Monastery. She had recently received a visit from Father Sofian, who brought her news from her daughter, the abbess of a Romanian nunnery where Father Sofian had stayed for a while during his trip to the United States. After accompanying her guest to his departure, she re-entered the house and was surprised by the soft, diffused light surrounding the chair on which Father had been sitting; it had, to use a metaphor, kept the memory. Father Sofian was radiant. Even […]

The ”Burning Bush” movement and the Prison

For Antim Monastery, the years of famine 1945-1948, which came upon us, together with the end of the Second World War and our occupation by Communism, were very hard years, not only for us, but for the whole Romanian country. From then on, the unrest began that lasted until the revolution of December 1989. During these difficult years, in the monastery of Antim, about 40 monks and brothers, some of them students at various faculties in Bucharest, and others working in the workshops of church objects, based in this monastery, we had some comforts, namely: during this period, the two […]

“I believe Father Sofian is a Saint”

Raluca Tănăseanu: I know that Fr. Sofian was your confessor. What impressed you most about His Holiness? Protosinghel Teofan Popescu (Putna Monastery): I confessed to Father Sofian for the last eleven years before he died. I was impressed by a certain spirit that he transmitted. The academic Virgil Cândea said that Father Sofian was par excellence the model of the Romanian confessor of the modern age, a model that we need so much. This type of Romanian confessor kept our nation in this spirit of balance, peace, gentleness, prayer of the heart. Father Sofian had a spiritual inheritance and that […]

Father Sofian Boghiu the Confessor

In 1967, when I was a student in Bucharest, I came to Plumbuita Monastery. A kind and faithful old lady told me that “years ago Father Sofian was the abbot there and now he is in Antim Monastery”. I went to Antim and saw him: he was “gentle and lowly in heart”, as Christ wants us all to be (Matthew 11:29). I met him many times after that, when I was a layman, a priest, a doctoral student and a bishop. In time, I learned that Father Sofian had also gone through the ordeal of the Communist dungeons and confessed […]

“I am convinced that Father is in the Kingdom of God”

Raluca Tănăseanu: How did you meet Fr. Sofian? Florin Botezan (Mihai Viteazul Memorial Church, Alba-Iulia): When I was a student in Bucharest, I heard about Father Sofian, that he was one of the confessors at Antim Monastery, and that’s how I came to confess during my student years. The first thing that captivated you about Father was his face, a face of gentleness, and his way of being; he had a lot of love and a lot of humility. That’s what really impressed you when you met Father. I heard that someone even converted to Orthodoxy just by looking at […]

“The light in the Father was mending the evil in you”

Raluca Tănăseanu: How did you meet Father Sofian? Silvia Radu (sculptor): I met him by a miracle, simply by a miracle – otherwise I couldn’t have met him except by a miracle! A young girl, whom I had baptised one of her children, took me by the hand and led me to him. The moment I met him I realised that he was a very special man, I had the feeling that something very unusual had happened. And my meetings with him were always full of joy. After the first confessions, I was so happy, there was such happiness in […]

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