The confessor Adrian Cărăușu in the communist dungeon
Adrian Cărăușu was born on 25 July 1920 in the family of Gheorghe Cărăușu, a ploughman from Scorțeni, Bacău County. A student at the Theological Faculty in Chernivtsi, he was arrested on 11 February 1942 on suspicion of being a member of an illegal political organisation. For this reason he was sentenced by decree no. 1493 of 28 March 1943 by the court-martial of the 21st Infantry Division, he was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour. He served part of his sentence in Aiud and Vaslui before being sent to the Eastern Front on 21 June 1944. After his release, he continued his theological studies and reached the third year. However, on the night of 8-9 May 1947, he was arrested again for alleged legionary activity and was investigated in a group of 30 young people in Suceava and then, from 5 June, in Bucharest, under the direct supervision of Alexandru Nicolschi.
He was sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the 2nd Military Region of Bucharest, by sentence no. 1546 of 1 August 1947, he was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months of hard labour for the crime of “plotting the destruction of the State”. In February 1948 he was sent to Aiud and on 10 January 1950 to Pitești Prison. He underwent re-education and resisted torture. In March 1951, he was transferred to Târgu Ocna Hospital-Penitentiary. According to Fr. Gheorghe Calciu, Adrian Cărăușu was a model of Christian life in prison: “He was so faithful and dedicated that everyone called him ‘Father Cărăușu’. He had been in prison since 1941, with Gafencu and the others. He told us for the first time about the life of those arrested during Antonescu’s time, about how they lived there, about prayers, about everything they did and about the spiritual life they had achieved. It was very interesting, it seemed to us like something from another world. And all these things he told us, and the prayers – he taught us a series of prayers – and the hymns, helped us a lot. It was the first time I had contact with theologians in prison, and for me this meeting with Father Cărăușu was a great source of spiritual strength for what followed”. These aspects are confirmed by Security Service documents. Cărăușu endured hundreds of days of solitary confinement because of the “religious education” he gave to the prisoners and the ecclesiastical garments he made from sheets and clothes found in his cell.
After a short stay in Jilava, he was transferred to Aiud Prison in April 1952. For the first six months he was kept in solitary confinement, but two years later he fell ill again with tuberculosis. On 4 January 1955, he was sent to Suceava Prison for “further investigation”, and on 26 January he was transferred to Văcărești Prison, probably for hospitalisation following the investigations he had undergone. In March 1955, he was transferred to Aiud. He fell ill again and was transferred from Aiud to Văcărești in May 1955. In May 1955, the Bucharest Military Tribunal sentenced him to imprisonment from 9 May 1947 and execution until 1 November 1959.
At the end of his sentence, on 13 September 1959, Adrian Cărăușu was sentenced to 60 months’ work by order of the Ministry of the Interior. He received this sentence for refusing to accept re-education. After a short detention in Gherla (November 1959), he was transferred to the Culmea camp and, from April 1960, to Periprava. He was released on 6 May 1964. He completed his theological studies at the Sibiu Institute and was ordained a priest. According to the Securitate records, in 1971 Adrian Cărăușu was a priest in the village of Nadișa, Strugari, Jud. Bacău.
(Adrian Nicolae Petcu – Lumina Newspaper)