Theologian student Constantin Nistor, martyr in the communist prisons

He was born into the family of Gheorghe and Ana Nistor. He attended primary school and then the St George Theological Seminary in Roman, graduating in 1944. He was immediately sent to the Western Front, with the rank of sergeant of the Dorobanți Regiment in Craiova, for two months, and was then decorated with the “Victoria” medal. Later, he also attended the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, where he graduated[1].

In 1940, during the National Legionary Government, he joined the “Brotherhood of the Cross”, where he was active until the events of January 1941. He resumed his Legionary activity during his student days, in 1947, when he came into contact with the “subversive organisation” in the Faculty of Theology, led by Sultan Petre, to which he belonged: Nicolae Bordașiu, Leonida Plămădeală, Braga Roman, Vaman Constantin, Răgălie Constantin, Antoniu Gheorghe, Brașov Niță, Pavel Ioan, Popescu Petre, Popescu Dumitru, Văduva Dumitru and Munteanu Paul. This was organised “in groups of 3”. I – as he declared on 19 August 1948 – was part of Răgălie Constantin’s group. Văduva Dumitru also belonged to this group. The conspiratorial meetings of the Faculty of Theology were held in the Theological Dormitory at 24 bis Radu Voda Street, in the “Association Library”, and were held weekly until June 1948. Membership fees were regularly charged for all conspiratorial meetings. Money and aid were given to Legionnaires in prison. The money and aid, which consisted of food, clothing and medicine, I gave to Roman Braga, who in turn took them to Nae Niculae”[2].

The meetings were held, according to Vaman Gheorghe’s statement of 23 July 1948, “in the library of the Radu Voda boarding school. The membership fees were collected by [Petre] Vila and [Constantin] Răgălie. The meeting proceeded as follows: prayer and oath, commentary on the biblical text chosen by the leader, minutes of the legion and friendship, in which (possible) observations were made to the people in the group. Later, the meetings could no longer be held in an organised way, but by walking in the street or by meeting in the college or in the dormitory, only to make communications, if any, or to give advice and precautions, and after Easter the communications were made from person to person, avoiding groups of more than 2 people and these meetings were very rare”[3].

In addition to this activity, Constantin Nistor was to take part in the compilation and distribution of a manifesto of the “subversive organisation” of which he was a member, called “Christian Brothers”, which stated, among other things: “[…] As a test for us, and as if to hasten their evil designs [of the Communists, n.n.], God has willed that this year the day of the Great Saturday of the Holy Passion, to be spent in fasting and prayer, should fall on the same date as the day chosen by the non-Christians for their vain pleasures: 1 May. The non-Christians have not shuddered to learn this meaning; they are seized by it. For the victory they desire, for the red hatred they will bear in the streets, and for the mockery of Christianity and our Christian Recollects, they are now preparing. […] Christians, leave the enemies of the faith alone, brand them with your contempt, leave them alone to cry out in the air to a helpless idol that calls for death. If they are united, their fury will be powerless, and our victory will be shaken by nothing. Be united, Romanians, Christians, May Day must be removed from its place this year. In Jesus they will not yet have the courage to strike”[4].

On 15 August 1948, after several arrests of students at the Faculty of Theology and Pharmacy in Bucharest, the theologian Constantin Nistor was arrested at his parents’ home by the communist authorities and detained at the Prefecture of the Capital Police. In fact, his arrest had been ordered on 29 July by the Mobile Brigade of the General Directorate of State Security. He was subjected to an extremely harsh investigation until December 1948, when the Securitate decided to form a group of 20 students from the two faculties and put them on trial, accusing them of activity in a “subversive pro-fascist organisation”[5].

On 12 January 1949, he was referred to the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Military Tribunal of Bucharest, who proposed that he be tried under Article 209, paragraph 3, in conjunction with Article 328 of the Penal Code, in application of Articles 101 and 103 of the Penal Code. On 14 February, he was tried by the Bucharest Military Tribunal, Section II, where he “admitted” all his “acts” and was sentenced to 5 years’ hard labour and 3 years’ civic degradation. On 7 June 1950, his appeal was rejected by decision no. 1531 of the Military Court of Cassation and Justice6.

After receiving the sentence, Constantin Nistor was sent to Jilava and then, on 2 March 1949, to the Pitești prison for the re-education of juveniles. On 29 April 1949 he was diagnosed with “left-sided sero-fribriform pleurisy”. (?), for which it was proposed that he be hospitalised. He was taken by ambulance to the TB prison hospital in Targu Ocna. Finally, after a long ordeal, he died at 6 a.m. on 5 July 1950 from “pulmonary TB phase III”[7].

On his deathbed in Târgu Ocna, he recounted what had happened in Pitești, according to Aristide Lefa: “He recounted horrors which we could hardly believe, but which were later confirmed by many of those who had experienced them”[8]. We can therefore see that Nistor had undergone re-education without being re-educated.

His family was to be informed a few years later, after his death, because in 1955, during the trial of the monk Antonie Plămădeală, Constantin Nistor was proposed as a witness for the defence. In a report dated 1 May 1955, the militia investigating at his home stated that “his parents inform us that their son, Constantin Nistor, was picked up by the security organs in 1949 [correct 1948 n.n.], and since then nothing has been heard of him”. They also claimed that “they have heard a public rumour that their son Constantin Nistor is dead, but it is not known for sure; since the People’s Council of this commune, where he was checked by us in the death register, has not received any notification, the aforementioned is considered missing”[9].

It was only after several searches in prisons to find him that the family learned in 1955 that their son had died in Târgu Ocna[10].

(Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Martyrs for Christ in Romania during the Communist Regime, Publishing House of the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 2007, pp. 513-516)

1. AMJDIM, Criminal fonds, file 22908, vol. 1, f. 230-231

2. Ibidem, f. 8-9, 230-231. All the quotations that we reproduce were passed through the filter of the investigators, who wished to have written in their statements what they thought would be convincing for the criminal courts to which the arrested persons were to be subjected.

3. Ibid, f. 12

4. Ibid, f. 100

5. Ibidem, f. 8-9, ACNSAS, fonds Informativ, file 6511, f. 5, 16

6. AMJDIM, Criminal file, file 22908, vol. 2, f. 18-19, 60, 81-87v, 177-180

7. Ibidem, vol. 9, f. 2-9, 15. In Orthodox Priests, p. 181 and in The Imprisoned Church, p. 280 – it is claimed that he was a priest, which I did not find in the criminal file I consulted, information that was taken from Confessors from Behind Bars, p. 56. Cicerone Ionițoiu considers him a student at Iași (The Golden Book, p. 113). He is also considered a student in The Burning Bush, p. 235.

8. Aristide Lefa, Fericiți cei che plâng, Bucharest, Eminescu Publishing House, 1998, p. 70.

9. AMJDIM, Criminal fonds, file 22908, vol. 4, f. 49

10. Ibidem, f. 67, 101, 137