St. Ilie Lăcătușu is a truly great saint before God

– Father Ioan, tell us a few words about Father Ilie Lăcătușu, whose whole and blessed relics were found in Bucharest a few years ago…

– Having heard about Father Ilie Lăcătușu from someone in Bucharest, who said that the priest spoke and worked miracles, out of curiosity I went to a friend who had a car and took me to the cemetery. I didn’t know Bucharest and I didn’t know where to go. And God wanted the daughter of Father Ilie Lăcătușu to come to the cemetery, even though she hadn’t been there for two or three days.

I thought that God wanted to do me a favour, because I was a stranger in Bucharest, at a great distance, and perhaps because of this desire to see him and confirm what I had heard, to see for myself, God wanted the girl to come.

And when I went in, I saw a real dead man, with his eyes closed, completely motionless. I was amazed to see him with no lid on him, no smell. Man, when he dies, in two or three days they have to treat him with all kinds of chemicals so that he doesn’t spread odours, so that he doesn’t rot immediately; there are many who have started to rot because of their sins. And he – nothing, for so many years, living in the air like all human beings, uncovered and without any odour. I went down on my knees, bowed my head over the coffin and said a prayer. And, of course, in the prayer I mentioned the Saviour, the Mother of God, and then I mentioned Him personally to pray for the forgiveness of my sins. And when I raised my head and looked at him, heis eyes were wide open. Then, unexpectedly – because the Saint works miracles, opens his eyes, moves, speaks to those who are worthy – I, who considered myself totally unworthy of such a thing, was impressed to see that he had opened his eyes wide. I bowed my head again and said a prayer, and when I raised my head again, his eyes were moving in my direction, he was looking the way people look without turning his head – but his eyes were looking directly at me. And Father Lăcătușu’s daughter said: “Father, Father wants to talk to you, ask you something”. And at that moment, not expecting another invitation, I looked back, I knew that when I was in the cemetery there were about three people – now there were about forty or fifty people behind me. And then I got up and walked away.

And I was left with the conviction that St. Ilie Lăcătușu is a truly great saint, great in the sight of God. I don’t know his work, I don’t know his life, I know that he was a priest who went to prison during the communist period and that’s why the leaders don’t want to canonise him.

I went another time, about two years ago, and I went again to Father Ilie Lăcătușu. I put my head on the coffin again and I prayed, but first I put my hands on his hands – completely stubborn, cold as ice, like the dead, and after praying a little bit I put my hands on his hands and I saw that his hands were moving up and down, they were moving with my hands.

– Are you moving his hands or not?

– I moved them. I put my hands on his hands.

– Oh, so they were moved by your hands?

– My hands were on his hands and I saw that his hands were no longer cold as ice, they were warm. And I moved to see if he moved. His hands moved and I was astonished. I saw a dead man, but not dead, a living dead man.

– They weren’t stiff anymore?

– No, not at all. They were flexible.

– No signs of decomposition…

– Absolutely nothing, like being alive, with a moustache and everything.

– Have you heard of any other miracles with Father Ilie?

– Someone said he spoke to him and I thought, “How can a dead man speak after so many years? How can he be for so many years and not rot? And I heard him say before he died: “You will bury me at the bottom, but after I don’t know how many years you will put the priestess in my place and leave me at the top” – just as it happened now. So he also had the gift of foresight. If it were not for these saints who are all over our country praying for us, I do not know what would have happened.

– Do you pray to him as a saint? Do you pray to Father Ilie?

– I don’t know how much I pray, but I know that he is a saint, a great saint, like Saint Calinic of Cernica, Saint Parascheva, Saint Dimitrie Basarabov, Saint Filofteia, great, great saints.

(Pr. Ioan de la Rarău – Interview by Danion Vasile, published in Atitudini Magazine no. 3/2008, pages 28-29)