The Dungeon – Theology Chair of Father Dumitru Stăniloae
Colonel Cr[ciun addressed the crowd with his usual air of importance. Shortly afterwards, two more – the last. One is a sturdy fellow, with a massive figure, Tatar features, tanned (probably from working in the sun), contrasting with the pallor and weakness of most of those present.
The other is a tall, grey-haired man with a dull face and a weak smile. Colonel Christmas introduces them:
– Mr Petre Pandrea, one of our Marxists, who came to you thanks to a mistake. This, Crăciun adds, pointing to the other, is Father Stăniloae.
The name of Father Stăniloae hit my eardrum like thunder. A few years ago, when the news arrived that Father Stăniloae had been arrested and sentenced, and that he was in Aiud, there was great excitement throughout the prison. The great Romanian theologian in chains! Living with the most determined Christians who opposed the apocalyptic Fiarei! Around 1960, when I was in a cell with Daniel Roman and Mircea Dumitrescu, I found out that Father Professor was in a cell on the ground floor with some peasants. That’s when I told my two friends how much I wanted to be in the same cell with Father Stăniloae. Now my wish has come true. What a joy for me! My heart was pounding. There was no doubt that God has heard my fervent wish and has ordained its fulfilment on the very day of Saints Peter and Paul. (…)
After the meeting with Colonel Christmas, the cells were allocated. Since not all of them would fit in one cell, some would remain in 321 and the others would go to 322. My great joy is that Father Stăniloae is assigned to 322, where I am. He sits on the right, in the last row of bunk beds facing the window, with Cristofor Dancu above him and me on the third bed, on top. I said to myself: “On the ground floor, the priest, on the first floor, the deacon, and on the second floor, the nephew of the bell-ringer” (…).
A guard came to announce us:
– Everyone out into the courtyard!
People began to come out. I went to Father Stăniloae, who was the last one left, and told him:
– I am Liviu Brânzaș, a former student of the “Samuil Vulcan” high school in Beiuș, and I am very happy to be with you because I want to study theology.
Father offered me his hand with a friendly smile. His face reflected the joy of a young man at the bottom of the dungeon who dreams of studying theology. He looks at me with confidence and says:
– The Romanian nation has gone through many hard times in its history, but it has always overcome and triumphed through faith in God and hope in the final triumph of good. And so it will be now. Let us endure with strength and humility the suffering that has been given to us.
This confession of Father Stăniloae sounds like a testament (…)
I must make the most of Father Stăniloae’s presence. Father offered to give me a course in theology every evening. The other young people, especially Gil Ioanid, also took part. Around Father Stăniloae’s bed, the cell took on the appearance of an amphitheatre. We all sat, some above, some below, and listened attentively. Father Stăniloae does not proceed like Father Ageu, who taught me theology in a purely didactic style, but introduces us to various theologians, from the classical Holy Fathers to Russian theologians. Although I now retain less detail, I am broadening my theological vision. There is, of course, no lack of philological moments. The translator of the Philokalia into Romanian is, of course, the most competent in this area of the need for perfection. Now I understand what I had only intuited: that the thought and feeling of the Holy Fathers is the authentic form of Christianity.
Whoever wants to know Christ must read the Holy Gospel. Whoever wants to follow Christ must read the writings of the Holy Fathers. They teach from their own experience how to obtain salvation.
No one can be a true Christian without knowing the teachings of the Holy Fathers. They are the explorers of the way to Christ. They correctly interpreted the map of the Gospel and reached the pole of salvation. The key to Christian rebirth is to follow Christ according to the Patristic model.
To try to be a Christian by bypassing the teachings of the Holy Fathers is to be unwise, vain and proud. The Protestant world is so poor without the patristic treasure.
“The holy and God-breathed Scriptures come to proclaim the truth. But there are also many writings written about them by our happy teachers, and whoever reads them will know the Scriptures and be able to acquire the knowledge he desires”. (St Athanasius the Great – Word against the Hellenists, p.29).
If the writings of the Holy Fathers do not move you, if they do not stretch out in you the inner spring of rebirth, it means that you have no inner adherence to the perfection achieved by them.
“That is why so much value is attached to the writings of Philokalia on the basis of thought. The passions can be melted away, and outward actions improved, only when man has learned to watch every thought carefully, so that if it be evil, he may at once banish it, or purify it, and clothe it in the remembrance of God. When in this way the whole of the inner life becomes clean, bright, good and filled with the light of the remembrance of God, man will become truly good in the outer life and free from evil. From then on, he will grow in love for his fellow men and will know more and more the deep mysteries of the spiritual life, entering into the centre of light and divine happiness.
Until then, however, the life of the soul must be lived according to the most precise, detailed and unwavering rules. The Holy Fathers are the incomparable masters of a science that we have allowed to be taken away from us, the science of the soul, which is the most precious reality after God, and this knowledge of theirs they make available to us in these writings”. (Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae – Foreword to the Philokalia, Vol. II).
“If we, brethren, would remember the words of the holy elders, if we would always meditate on them, we would hardly sin, we would hardly fall into carelessness”. (Avva Dorotheus – Let us not judge our neighbour, Phil.IX, p.537)
(Liviu Brânzaș – Raza from the Catacomb)