The life of the martyred priest Aurel Negoescu
The martyred priest Aurel Negoescu (Neagovici) was born on 27 May 1900 in Întorsura Buzăului, Covasna County. His father, priest Gheorghe Neagovici Negoescu, was a member of the Neagovici Negoescu family of priests, who for over 200 years shepherded the Romanian Orthodox faithful in the Buzăului Ardelean Depression and laid the foundations of Romanian confessional education in the area. My mother, the priestess Aurelia, née Coltofeanu, was the daughter of a well-known family of Romanian leaders from Poiana Sărată, in the former county of Trei Scaune (now Covasna).
Among the priests who served at the altar in Întorsura Buzăului, from the Negoescu (Neagovici) family, are Gheorghe Neagovici (the elder), who laid the foundations of this real “dynasty”, being one of the founders of the church he served between 1805-1841; Gheorghe Neagovici (the younger), son of Gheorghe Neagovici senior, between 1841-1867; (Gheorghe Neagovici (the younger), son of Gheorghe Neagovici senior, between 1841-1867; Alexie Neagovici (Negoiescu), between 1867-1903, serving with his son Gheorghe Neagovici (Negoiescu) jr. who assisted his father from May 1892 and remained titular from 1914 to 1938.
On the initiative of these two priests, a fund was created from their personal income for the benefit of the Church, to be called “The Dania of Priests Alexe and Gheorghe Neagovici”. The priest Gheorghe Neagovici (Negoiescu) also fulfilled the mission of protopope of Trei Scaune county (1919-1922).
In anticipation of his son’s martyrdom, the priest Gheorghe Neagovici (Negoiescu) was arrested in the years of the First World War, together with 14 other Romanian priests from the Carpathian Curve, a fact that ended with a trial for “treason against the fatherland” and “Romanian espionage”. In the known historical context, the government in Budapest staged an “espionage action” to prove to Germany that the Transylvanian Romanians were “traitors to the Hungarian homeland and did not deserve to have their fate changed”.
On 6 December 1916, the Supreme Military Tribunal in Budapest sentenced the priest Ioan Coman from Sita Buzăului to death by hanging (he was released during the events of October 1918, but died a month later, at the age of 47, as a result of the suffering he had undergone in prison). On the same occasion, the following priests were sentenced to imprisonment Gheorghe Neagovici-Negoescu (arrested on 25 December 1915 and imprisoned in Brasov, Cluj, Oradea and again in Cluj until 28 October 1918), Iosif Popovici from Sfântu Gheorghe, Ioan Toma from Dobolii de Jos, Gheorghe Furtună from Covasna, Gheorghe Burlea from Barcani, Nicoale Rădoiu from Ozun and others. a. This was only the beginning of the ordeal suffered by the Romanian priesthood in Covasna County during the years of the First World War.
Despite the hardships of that time, the son of Father Gheorghe Neagovici-Negoiescu, the future priest Aurel Negoescu, attended the “Andrei Șaguna” Gymnasium in Brasov, graduating in 1918 with very good results. Continuing the family tradition, he then attended the Orthodox Theological Institute in Sibiu, where he graduated in Orthodox Theology.
Following the example of other young intellectuals of his generation, he responded to the call to contribute to the cultural revival and prosperity of the Hungarianised Romanian population of the former Szekler seats. Thus, in 1925, he went to Gheorgheni, Harghita County, as a teacher of Romanian language and religion at the local “Saint Nicholas” Gymnasium. In 1926 he married the teacher Zoe Popescu.
After being ordained a priest by Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan, he celebrated the sacred liturgies for several years in a room of the “St. Nicholas” gymnasium, where an Orthodox chapel had been set up. The priest Aurel Negoescu continued to teach religion at the local high school, and in 1930 he was appointed mayor of the town.
Together with Professor Teodor Chindea and other Romanian intellectuals, he reactivated the Giurgeu-Gheorghieni branch of ASTRA, founded the local publication “Gazeta Ciucului” and other church and school newspapers and magazines, and worked continuously with them.
In 1929, with the encouragement and support of the government, the local town hall and the great scholar and patriot Nicolae Iorga, the priest Aurel Negoescu laid the foundation stone for the Orthodox Cathedral in Gheorghieni, a place of worship whose construction was completed almost 10 years later, in 1938. The church was consecrated on 24 September 1938 by Metropolitan Dr Nicolae Bălan (the Antimins was consecrated by the same Metropolitan in 1926). The Pisania bears the following text:
“This foundation stone of the Holy Romanian Orthodox Church of Gheorghieni, Ciuc County, with the dedication “Saint George”, was laid in the year of our Lord 1929, September 29th, in the days of the Most High and Christ-loving King of Romania – Mari MIHAIU I, under the wise shepherding of the I. P.S.S. Archbishop. P.S.S. Archbishop and Metropolitan of Ardeal, Dr. NICOLAE BĂLAN, Protopope of Oituz, being P.C.S. Protoereu Ioan Rafiroiu, and the first Parish Priest of the Parish of Gheorghieni-Ciuc, C.S. Priest Aurel Gh. N. Negoescu.
The parish council is composed of the following members President: Fr. Aurel Gh. N. Negoiescu, Secretary Professor Theodor Atanasiu, Epitrop I, Notary Gheorghe Gociman, Epitrop II, Administrator Nicolae Mărculescu, Judge Mircea Klein, Engineer Ioan Gheorghiu, Engineer Nicolae Băcanu, Lawyer Teofil Bena, Lawyer Ioan Păcurar, Professor Ioan Gh. Niculescu, professor Ioan Stoian, postmaster Dumitru Giurca, merchant Iuliu Nap, peddler and cantor Octavian Budac.
The contract for the construction of the Mina & Perdomi Church in Bucharest, according to the plans of the architect Sterie Becu, from the Historical Monuments Commission of Bucharest.
May God receive the gift of all those who have contributed and will contribute to the construction of this holy place through their work and sacrifices of any kind or through their offerings; And we, the ministers of the altar, who have performed the great act of laying the foundation stone, ask the Almighty Father to bless this holy shrine, so that it may be preserved from generation to generation as a priceless treasure of the times of greatness and splendour with which God has endowed our Romanian people, raised with faith in God and love for the country and the King.
We performed the holy service of laying the foundation stone: Protoereu IOAN RAFIROIU, Protopope of Oituz, local parish priest Fr. Gh. N. Negoescu, priest Iancu Bărbat, parish priest of Miercurea-Ciuc”.
The great historian Nicolae Iorga, who had good and constant relations with the Romanian community of Gheorgheni, was the one who recommended the architect S. Becu and the builders Mina and Perdoni to draw up the plan of the holy place. The painting, of great beauty, was done by Gheorghe Belizarie from Pitești, in the Byzantine style.
From the few documents preserved in the family archives, some photographs and the invitation to the festivities connected with the consecration of the new church have been recovered. “The parish council of Ort. Rom. Gheorgheni-Ciuc, with Christian love, invites you to the solemn consecration of the church dedicated to St. George, which will take place on Sunday, 24 July 1938. At the official reception at the main gate of the city – according to the same invitation – “in the presence of the clergy and the local authorities, the greeting was given by the Protopope of the Oituz Protoery, Ioan Rafiroiu, and Teodor Chindea, the Mayor of the city”.
In the years following the Vienna Dictate, in the autumn of 1940 and during the communist regime, both Bishop Nicolae Popovici and Protopope Ioan Rafiroiu suffered many hardships at the hands of the Holocaust and communist authorities, simply because they were Romanians and servants of the Orthodox Church. Father Aurel Negoescu paid with his life for the same accusation.
After the death of his father, the priest Gheorghe Neagovici Negoescu, in 1939, Father Aurel Negoescu was appointed priest of the Orthodox parish of his native town, Întorsura Buzăului. Although the settlement was not part of the territory ceded by the Vienna Dictate, due to its proximity to the unjust border, Father Aurel Negoescu and his parishioners had to lend a helping hand – that is, to give shelter and food to thousands of Romanian citizens from the towns ceded to Hungary, who, following the persecution unleashed against them, were forced to leave their savings and take the road to Beja.
As is well known, the events that followed the signing of the Vienna Dictate in August 1940 began in the towns of northern Transylvania with the expulsion of Romanian priests, teachers and soldiers, the destruction or desecration of churches and the devastation of Romanian institutions.
The atrocities committed by the new Hungarian authorities, the insults, insults, beatings, degradation of human dignity, starvation, persecutions of all kinds, ill-treatment, beatings, rapes, murders, slaughters, deportations and internment in forced labour camps were inflicted not only on the elite, on men, but also on defenceless women, children and the elderly.
Unfortunately, the ordeal of Romanian priests and their accused parishioners did not end with the end of the war. It is increasingly true that the Hungarian People’s Union, created after the war and strengthened by “spectacular conversions of former nationalist Hortiyists to communist ideology”, immediately came to power as the main ally of the Communist Party and managed to use this ideology “as another facet or channel for the manifestation of Hungarian revisionism”, which was to gain a new foothold here and after the end of hostilities.
The main leaders of the Romanian population of the inter-war period, returning from refuge and exile, swelled the ranks of the Romanian elite, which had been decimated in communist prisons and on the Danube-Black Sea Canal, to which the communist Hungarians in the area also contributed particularly actively.
The Soviet power, interested in perpetuating Romanian-Hungarian misunderstandings in order to fully exercise its domination and punish “bourgeois” Romania, manoeuvred to undermine the authority of the Romanian state. A few years later, under pressure from the USSR, the Hungarian Autonomous Region was established (1952-1968), which established privileges for the Hungarian and Szekler populations in relation to the Romanian population. During the period of the Hungarian Autonomous Region, knowledge of the Hungarian language became compulsory for the Romanians who remained in the area in order to deal with the new administration. Many Romanians remember the constant threats they faced, the harassment they endured, the way they were “silenced” (accused of nationalism) when they demanded certain rights, the dismissals and accusations of “deviationism” to which they were subjected.
Father Aurel Negoiescu (Neagovici) was one of the leaders of the Romanian people who became undesirable to the communist regime. His exceptional work in the parish of Gheorghieni during the interwar period, in the field of the development of the Orthodox Church and Romanian culture, together with his attachment to the Church and the reservations he expressed towards the new atheist regime during his pastorate in Întorsura Buzăului (1939-1952), constituted his main “charges”, which were never expressed in writing.
Father Aurel Negoescu served in the church “St. George” in Întorsura Buzăului until 15 August 1952, when he was arrested by the political militia and imprisoned in a despicable way, as it was done in those years of sad memory, without a warrant and without a court sentence. He was taken to the Danube-Black Sea Canal, where he died three months later. According to the death certificate, Father Aurel Negoescu died on 1 December 1952, and the death certificate was issued only on 26 November 1954. This document, which was issued at the request of the family two years after the tragic end of the martyred father, states that “the death was registered in the civil status register of Năvodari-Medgidia under no. 102 of 13 December 1952. Nothing is recorded under the heading ’cause of death’. From the testimony of Mrs. Rodica Țepeluș – daughter of Fr. Aurel Negoescu – it appears that her family was able to reconstruct little information about her father’s suffering during his imprisonment. It seems that he died of starvation, rummaging through the household rubbish in search of food. Thus ended the earthly life of Father Aurel Negoescu, whose dedication was entirely to the service of God and the good of the people.
(Dr. Ioan Lăcătușu, Pr. Florin Tohănean, Prof. Violeta Pătrunjel – Națiunea Newspaper, electronic edition of 14 June 2013, article “Martyred priests from Covansna and Harghita” apud Orizonturi Transilvane Magazine, Year II, No. 2, January 2013, pp. 4-7)