“Thank you, Lord, that I have suffered a little for You!”

To tell you about the tortures of Aiud, we have to start with the isolation. Sleeping on cement in winter, can you imagine that?! In 1957, I was in a cell with a priest, Father Iov, from Arad County, and an accountant from Vrancea. The guards caught us praying. They reported us and we were punished with 10 days in solitary confinement. And what happened there? On the eve of the holidays, they put you in solitary confinement. The most rebellious ones. I remember that there were about 60 of us in solitary confinement. And two prosecutors came to visit the cells where we were isolated.

I reported the conditions in which I was kept. They told me that the walls were clean and that we had heaters. As if they ever worked…

During this time, two of the people in isolation died. On the eighth day. Then they took us to our cells. I’ll never forget the words of Father Job, who knelt down beside his bed and said:

“Thank you, Lord, that I have suffered a little for You”.

(Pr. Paulin Clapon – fragment de interviu, Revista Veghea nr. 4 din 2009)