Testimony on the mercy and prayer of Father Ilarion Argatu

I met Father Ilarion Argatu in 1984. I had heard from some priests – colleagues – that the priest had helped them materially to repair the churches where they served, and as I also had repair work to do in the church, I thought I would try my luck. Father Argatu had his cell in the monastery of Cernica. One morning, towards the end of March, I went to see Fr. Ilarion. When I arrived at the monastery, I easily recognised the cell: about 30-40 people were quietly waiting at a door. I squeezed through the crowd, reached the door and entered, giving the impression that I was a regular visitor.

When I entered the chapel, Father Argatu was sitting on a wooden chair at a table covered with moss. On the table was a bucket of water, a cross and two small vases of basil. One was as big as the mouth of the bucket of water, so you could barely reach it when you picked it up, and one was small, like the priests carry when they go around the village on Epiphany. There were icons on all the walls, a burning candle, a peasant’s mat on the floor. The priest was reading from a book, looked up at me, started to say something, but when he saw me in awe, he stopped. He was astonished! He had a big, white, patriarchal beard, his eyes were playing in his head. Dear reader, he spoke to me in that “sweet Moldovian dialect” which, if I tried to reproduce it, I might get wrong. It warmed my heart…

– What trouble has brought you brother to me? Come, let me kiss your forehead!

I felt I was looking at a saint. A few months earlier, I had visited a parish priest in a large church in Bucharest. Seeing me in awe, he said to me directly: “If you came for money, you know I don’t have any. Go and work. Go and sing at another table, because it doesn’t work for me”.

Father Argatu took my face in his hands and even kissed me on the forehead.

– Sit down on that chair and tell me about the wind that brought you to my cell.

I told him my problems: big church… small village… poor world… historical monument…

– Your brotherhood, if you want me to help you, you must come to me three times in the name of the Holy Trinity. Come once for the Father, once for the Son and then for the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of the world. Come three months in a row and then we will see what thoughts the Holy Trinity will give me about your brotherhood.

– I’ll be happy to come, your Holiness!

– Now go, open the door and let the crowds in!

Father’s cell was not more than four by four metres. I opened the door and the 30-40 people “swarmed” into the priest’s cell. After we had calmed down, Father Argatu asked us all:

– See these two little basil bundles? One is big and one is small! He pointed to the two holy water brushes on the table. I use the big basil against the big devils and the little basil against the little devils… all day long… because the little devils are always around us! And the priest raised his hands and wiggled his fingers to show us that the devils won’t leave us alone. Then he took the little basil bundle, dipped it in the bucket of holy water and sprinkled us all in the sign of the Holy Cross, saying:

– Almighty Lord, with your mercy save your servants who are powerless. Stretch out Your healing arm and raise them from the bed of suffering and sickness; cast out the spirit of helplessness and remove from them all pain, heat and cold; and if there are sins in them, forgive them out of Your love for humanity… You! Now go out and come in, one by one. And your brotherhood – and looked at me – I’ll be waiting for you in a month. I kissed his hand, Father kissed me on the forehead… and I left.

A month later, one morning, I was back in Father Ilarion’s cell. The meeting was almost the same, but in the evening, as I was leaving, he said to me: “Next time come with the receipt”. I was hungry and when I left the convent I thought that Father Argatu hadn’t eaten that day either. Another month passed and I went to see the priest again, who, as soon as I entered the chapel – still around 6 in the morning – said to me:

– Well… your brotherhood, now you have come in the name of the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of the world. Have you brought the receipt?

– I have, your Holiness!

He puts his hands to his chest, fumbles, then pulls out a bundle of money from under his cassock.

– Come on, get up and write on the receipts… and start… Ion, Vasile, Maria, Floarea with her children, Stan and Gherghina with the whole family, the departed Văsălie…

– My dear priest, the father told me to write the family name…

– Tell Father Protopope to give you money to repair the church…

I filled in 150 receipts with just my baptismal name; he gave me 15,000 lei, then, feeling indebted, I wrote him an invitation…

I invite you to my church one day; my church used to be a monastery…

Father takes two bagels out of a bag and hands them to me, saying:

– Here’s something to eat, because you were hungry last time. Come here. He went to the window of the cell, pulled aside a plain white curtain and continued:

– I can’t come because I’m being followed. Do you see that man sitting on the bench? But I’m asking you, is he actually sitting!? He’s just pretending to read, he’s not really reading! So he’s a communist agent. If he read the amount of time he pretended to read, he’d be smarter than both of us! Do you know what book he is reading? Immortal Tales…! Poor thing! That’s his bread and butter! I’m not angry with him. He could have children. I even pray for him every morning. 

(Fr. Nicolae Trușcă – World of Faith Magazine)