The “Patriarch” of Drăgășani
A great researcher and folklorist, an outstanding historian, an incomparable publicist, Fr. Dumitru Bălașa is the perfect image of the scholar who plunges untiringly into the mire of history to bring to light long-forgotten truths. Above all, Fr. Dumitru Bălașa was not a historian, but a priest. Serving in troubled times of severe communist oppression, the scholar-priest hid all his desires in the lap of the epitrachelion, often saying like Saint Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21)”!
Father Dumitru Bălașa was born on 1 August 1911 in the village of Gușoieni in Vâlcea, the second of seven children in the Bălașa family. His father, Matei Bălașa, came from an old priestly family and attended the seminary in Râmnic until the third year, when he had to interrupt his studies due to typhoid fever. His mother, Ioana, instilled in him a love for sacred things, and she always wanted at least two of her sons to become Priests.
Encouraged by his mother’s wish, but also by his ambition to study and serve the Church, young Dumitru entered the “Saint Nicholas” Theological Seminary in Râmnicu Vâlcea in 1923. Here he developed a passion for poetry and literature and proved himself a good church journalist. His poems and essays soon made him a faithful contributor to prestigious magazines in Râmnicu Vâlcea, such as “Curierul muncii”, “Naționalul Vâlcii”, “Îndrumarea Vâlcii”, “Seminarium”, “Roza literară”, etc.
His love for literature and poetry led the young seminarian to draw up a plan for the creation of his own magazine, following the example of the great priest-book writer Gh. Dumitrescu-Bistrița, who ten years earlier had founded the parish magazines “Izvorașul”, “Opaițul satelor” and “Alarma satelor”. After publishing the first issue of his magazine, with the suggestive title “Foaia literară”, the ambitious editor forgot to get the school’s approval and was on the verge of being expelled.
The first history magazine in Craiova
Immediately after graduating from the seminary, in 1932, he married Ana, the niece of the teacher Preda Grecu from Suteștii de Vâlcea. The family became for the future Father the centre of his equilibrium and the basis of his future research. The fruit of their marriage were their two daughters, who later became renowned doctors in Vâlcea County. Shortly after his marriage, Dumitru Bălașa took up the priesthood and was ordained in a rather modest parish near Sutești.
He then studied at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, graduating magna cum laude in 1936. During this period, his passion for literature and poetry gave way to his passion for history and research. He began to transcribe old documents into Cyrillic, many of which were published in the Craiova magazine “Renașterea”. It was also during this period that the priest came into contact with many cultural figures in the fields of history and theology in Bucharest, establishing numerous collaborations and lasting friendships. Among them was the current Metropolitan of Cluj and Feleac, Archbishop Bartholomeu Ananias, who later became one of Father’s closest friends.
In 1939, at the urging of the great scholar Nicolăescu Plopșor, Father Bălașa settled in the capital of Oltenia and was appointed priest of the parish of “Saint Nicholas” Ungureni. As well as serving at the altar, he continued his studies and research, learning the Slavic language very well and managing to translate numerous inscriptions and documents. Together with his mentor, N. Plopșor, he founded the first historical journal in Craiova: “Oltenia”. It contains numerous manuscripts and transcriptions translated from the Slavonic by the diligent priest and historian.
Holy Mass on the battlefield
During the Second World War, Dumitru Bălașa served as a military priest and was later promoted to the rank of colonel for his bravery. In the army reports, which are kept in the State Archives in Pitești, it is recorded that on many occasions Father Bălașa defied the rain of bullets and shells to celebrate Holy Mass or to give Christian burial to fallen soldiers. He volunteered to go to Transnistria to baptise those oppressed by the Stalinist regime. Only God ensured that the priest survived all these trials. His correspondence from the front with his faithful in the parish of St. Nicholas in Craiova is also well known. The letters were later published by Father Tudor Mirescu in the magazine “Christian Light”.
After his return from the battlefield, Father Mirescu resumed his book-writing activities and continued to serve at St. Nicholas Church in Craiovița. Professor Toma Rădulescu, head of the archaeological department of the Craiova Art Museum, one of the priest’s close students, recalls that “during Lent, Father Bălașa always helped in the first and last week and had a monastic regime in the church. One of the canons he strictly observed was to say a hundred prayers before the royal icons at the beginning of each Holy Mass. Some people thought he was mad for all this, but he was really mad for Christ. All his ministries were interwoven with research, sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice. He travelled all over Oltenia to make new discoveries. He often went on foot, dressed in humble clothes, with a piece of bread and a torn sack, which he never parted with. There is hardly a church in the whole of Oltenia that Father Dumitru Bălașa did not know, explore and study in detail”.
How he defied the communist torturers
After the installation of the communist regime, Father Bălașa felt very uncomfortable. He was one of the priests with the largest files in the archives of the former Security Service. He was falsely accused of working against the state and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1959, the priest was taken from his home in Sitești and deported to Aiud, Jilava and finally Pitești. Almost all his writings were confiscated.
In 1964, when many of the prisoners in Pitești were about to be released, one Christmas, the prison commander called Father Bălașa and told him that on the day of his release he would speak to the prisoners to tell them that he no longer believed in God and that he had been completely “re-educated”. On that day, more than a thousand people were gathered in the prison yard, waiting for the light of freedom. Standing in front of the microphone, the priest said in a loud voice: “Let us thank God, brothers, that we escaped alive!” and began to sing the “Our Father”. Everyone fell to their knees and sang the Lord’s Prayer with him until the end. The priest was then severely beaten and promised that he would never get out alive. But God did not leave him alone this time. The priest’s story was immediately brought to the gates of the Vatican by Catholic and Greek Catholic bishops who witnessed the event. All the major radio stations in Europe (Vatican Radio and Free Europe) spoke of the mad courage of the Orthodox priest who had defied the Communist torturers on their own soil.
He raised the prestige of publications in Oltenia
After his release in 1964, he was sent to the poorest parish in Vălcea, which he accepted without hesitation. In 1967, Metropolitan Firmilian called him back to Craiova to revive the magazine “Mitropolia Oltenia” and to serve in the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Dumitru. Through his research, he managed to bring new study subjects to the pages of the magazine that no one had ever tackled before. Although he never taught at the cathedra, Father had many disciples whom he was able to train for the future of the Church. He was also in charge of the rich library of the Metropolis of Oltenia. Very often he stayed in the reading room until the morning, translating or writing down his new discoveries. He made a significant contribution to the preparation of Nicolae Stoicescu’s “Bibliography of the Monuments of Wallachia”. In 1970, he became a member of the Romanian Slavic Association and a collaborator of the Society of Friends of the Nicolae Balcescu Museum. Although he was still targeted by the Securitate for his excessively nationalistic sermons, in 1978 Father Bălașa and his entire work were included in a synthesis of the best Romanian historical writings of the period.
He refused to become a member of the Romanian Academy.
After the death of his beloved wife, Father Bălașa retired to his old home in Sutești, where he continued to work. He was often visited by distinguished heirs and scholars who came to learn. In 1983 his entire library was confiscated, including all his manuscripts translated from Slavonic. However, he managed to make a fresh start and once again filled the gap left by his communist comrades. In 1990 he was offered membership of the Romanian Academy, but he refused, wishing to remain the same modest man.
After nine decades of a life dedicated to God through study and research, Father Dumitru Bălașa died on 24 December 2001: “Dumitru Bălașa was a great researcher, but above all he was a priest, a priest as we have rarely seen, gifted with the power of prayer and an extraordinary humility. He was called the “patriarch” of Drăgășani, and when he prayed, his face would light up like that of an improved monk,” says Professor Toma Rădulescu, a disciple of Father Bălașa.
(Ioniță Apostolache – Lumina Newspaper)