The tumultuous end of Father Daniil in Aiud prison

There is no doubt that my obstinate literary work shielded me to some extent not only from the misery of prison life, but also from the tragedy of re-education. I heard of heartbreaking scenes […] A few weeks later I was called into the commandant’s office. […]

When I returned to the station, Father Daniil – otherwise a spiritual man of cultural prestige – was in favour of starting re-education (“sooner or later we will have to do it, and then it will be good for these legionaries to shake their conscience about the crimes they committed in the name of the Cross”).

He also confessed that he would offer to start it himself. He went from person to person, looking for followers, and was only stopped by the threat of his former doorman at the newspaper Credința, a Legionary, who offered to ask the former journalist Sandu Tudor questions and then to reveal how many millions of lei he had brought him in packages, from the door to the safe, the price of the monstrous blackmail with which he had robbed people of their money.

About a week later, Father Daniil was taken from the station, bag and baggage. I heard he’d died in the cell block. The priests, about six or seven of us in the station, said his funeral prayers. I, too, was saddened by his death, but also by the fact that he had left the station without having had the chance to reconcile with Mr. Ernest Bernea – a man of rare kindness – with whom he had quarrelled over some principles of cultural philosophy, and whom he had insulted with harsh words that only a temper like his could utter. I had tried in vain; I could not soften him. God forgive him!

(Valeriu Anania – Memoirs, Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2008, p. 327)