The story of an Orthodox abbot told by a Lutheran pastor

Richard Wurmbrand is a name that is still little known in Romania. But those who chose the path of exile before 1989 know of the worldwide fame of the Lutheran pastor, who was born in Romania to Jewish parents and later converted to Christianity. The organisation he founded, the Christian Mission for the Communist World, now known as the Voice of the Martyrs, was and is one of the most important and influential in the world in investigating and denouncing abuses of religious freedom in various countries around the world.

Richard Wurmbrand, who went to the West in 1965, testified about those he met in Communist prisons who had confessed Christ, whatever their denomination. Many of them were Orthodox. One of the most impressive stories that Pastor Wurmbrand told the world is that of the Abbot of the Tismana Monastery, Gherasim Iscu.

Much has been written about Father Gherasim Iscu in the last 20 years. For this reason, in the following we will concentrate only on the essential elements of his image, leaving room for the testimony of Pastor Wurmbrand.

A Moldavian among the Oltenians

Fr. Gherasim Iscu was born on 21 January 1912 in the commune of Poduri, Bacău County. Although he was Moldavian, he spent most of his monastic life in Oltenia. He became a monk in the Tismana Monastery, with its support he attended the monastic seminary of Cernica, where he graduated in 1935 as the head of the class, and also in Tismana he was ordained a hieromonk in 1936.

As a result of his merits, he was appointed Abbot of Arnota Monastery by Bishop Vartolomeu Stănescu of Râmnic, with the task of restoring the buildings destroyed by fire and reviving spiritual activity.

At the end of 1939, Father Gherasim went to the monastic seminary of Cernica as librarian and accountant. He lived there with the teachers and seminarians during the turmoil that Romania experienced between 1940 and 1941. Suspected of Legionary sympathies, although he refused to join the movement, Gherasim Iscu was investigated by the agents of the Antonescu regime, who noted his lack of involvement in political affairs.

Apostolate in Transnistria and Oltenia

On his return to Oltenia, he responded to the call of Metropolitan Nifon Criveanu for the priests and monks of the diocese to go to Transnistria to support the revival of religious life in that war-torn area. Father Iscu worked in Transnistria for a year (April 1942-April 1943), during which time he served in the cathedral of the city of Balta, helped to found the Berșad monastery (where he was also abbot), and founded the Păsățel hermitage in Râbnița county, where he also worked as a teacher and professor of religion, like many other missionary priests. Although he knew that his mission was limited in time, he made an effort to learn the Ukrainian language so that he could serve and preach in the language of the majority of the inhabitants of Transnistria, and he took very seriously the mission that was asked of the Romanian priests in Transnistria, namely that they should be the symbols of the Romanian authorities’ thoughts of peace for the inhabitants of this region, who should not feel under occupation. For this reason, Father Iscu often confronted the Romanian authorities in the province, at great risk, and was tempted to commit various abuses.

Back in the country, Father Iscu was given the task of being abbot of the great lavra of Tismana at a very difficult time in its existence. During the war years, it was a camp for legionaries and housed the treasury of the National Bank. After the war, Tismana became one of the care centres for orphans and refugees from the famine in Moldavia.

Arrest, sentencing and his earthly end

In September 1948, Father Gherasim was arrested. The reason for his arrest was the request made to him by the anti-communist group, led by General Ioan Carlaonț and Radu Ciuceanu, to install a radio station in the monastery of Tismana. Although Gherasim Iscu refused to install the station, in order to avoid involving the monastery in actions that could attract repression from the communist power, his activity in Transnistria, which was already a millstone, and his active presence in the church life of Oltenia were elements that “helped” to bring about his arrest.

Father Iscu was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour by the judgement of 928/21 June 1949, although during the investigation he refused to admit what the investigators were asking him, despite being beaten countless times.

He was imprisoned in Aiud and Pitesti, then sent to work on the canal. Suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, ulcers and intestinal tuberculosis, Father Iscu was sent by the “mercy” of the authorities to the prison hospital at Targu Ocna, where he died on 26 December 1951. Father Wurmbrand recounts these last moments of Father Iscu in his memoirs (Cu Dumnezeu în subterană, Stephanus Publishing House, 2007, pp. 112-117):

Dark memories of the Canal

“Abbot Iscu sometimes spoke of the slave camps along the Danube-Black Sea Canal, where thousands of people died of starvation and maltreatment.

The canal had been started under pressure from the Russians, who saw it as a more efficient means of getting Romanian products out of the country faster than the existing ones… The plan was a relentless drain on Romania’s resources, and between 1949 and 1953 tens of thousands of political and ordinary prisoners worked on its construction.

The abbot had been in Poarta Albă, one of the prison colonies along the route. Twelve thousand people, living in dilapidated huts surrounded by barbed wire, had to dig eight cubic metres a day by hand. They pushed wheelbarrows up steep slopes under threat of beatings by guards. In winter, the temperature dropped to -25°C and the water brought in in barrels froze. Disease was rampant. Many prisoners went to the forbidden areas around the camps to be shot.

The most brutal criminals were in charge of the “brigades” and were paid with food or cigarettes according to their results. Those imprisoned because of their faith were grouped together in a “thieves’ brigade”. Anyone who made the sign of the cross was beaten. There was no day of rest, no Christmas, no Easter…

The virtues of repentance and the power of forgiveness

Abbot Iscu had daily coughing fits that grew longer and longer. His body, weakened by years of hunger and work on the canal, was shaken by terrible attacks. We watched helplessly as he died. Sometimes he didn’t recognise the friends who came to help him. When he was conscious, he whispered prayers for hours and always found words of comfort for others…

My bed was between that of the abbot and that of the young Vasilescu, another victim of the Canal. Vasilescu, a common law convict, had been assigned to the priests’ brigade. He’d beaten them into submission. But for some reason Colonel Albon had taken him by the eye and beaten him so badly that he died too. His tuberculosis was very advanced.

Vasilescu had a square face with harsh features and curly black hair that fell over his forehead. He had been hungry for what he thought were the joys of life, so that he could lead a settled life, content with a steady job. He had lived a hard life. He was like the murderer in Macbeth – “one whom the misfortunes and blows of life had so worn out that what he did left him cold: he threw a defiance at the world”.

– Once you’re in those camps, you’ll do anything to get out. Anything! And Albon told me that if I did what he asked, I would be released,” Vasilescu said. All he needed was an overcoat and a girl to be his companion, and the Party had given him a choice: join the prisoners or the torturers.

Now Vasilescu regretted all this and felt sorry for himself. He used to tell me about the atrocities he had committed at the Canal. He hadn’t even spared the abbot. It was obvious that he was dying and I tried to comfort him, but he could not find peace. One night he woke up panting and breathing heavily.

– Father, I’m going, he said. Please pray for me!

He slept some more and woke up crying:

– I believe in God! Then he began to cry.

At dawn, Abbot Iscu called two prisoners to him and asked them to lift him up.

– You are too sick to be healed, they said.

Everyone in the room began to move.

– What’s going on? What is he going to do? they asked. Let us do it!

– You can’t do that, he said. Get me out of bed!

They supported him and lifted him up.

The abbot sat down beside the young man who had been torturing him and put a gentle hand on his arm.

– Calm down, he said in a soothing tone. You are young. You don’t know what you’re doing.

He wiped the sweat from the young man’s brow with a cloth.

– I forgive you with all my heart, as do I and the other Christians. And if we forgive you, surely Christ, who is better than we are, will also forgive you. A place will be found for you in heaven.

He received Vasilescu’s confession and gave him Holy Communion, after which he was helped to his bed.

During the night, both the abbot and Vasilescu died. They must have gone to heaven holding hands.”[1]

(Gheorghe Enache – Ziarul Lumina)

[1] Richard Wurmbrand, With God underground, Stephanus Publishing House, 2007, pp. 112-117.