“This is Pharisaism!”

Constantin Dumitru (the future Fr. Marcu Dumitru) shared a cell with Dr. Uță, a prisoner who was appreciated both by the suffering brothers and by the prison administration. For this reason, after his medical interventions in some delicate situations, the prison warden, as a sign of gratitude, sent the doctor roes, a food that was difficult to find in those years.

Constantine was putting the eggs on bread to share with his cellmates when another prisoner came through the door to call the doctor. Constantine quickly covered the slices of bread with roe using a box lid he had at hand. After the newcomer left with Dr. Uță, one of the cell members jumped up and shouted, “This is Pharisaism! You’re hiding to make people think we’re fasting!” Constantine made no reply, being very silent in his own way. When only the two of them were left, he said to him, gently and wisely, giving him an example of good measure: “Dear Sandu, what do you think he would have said to all of us if he had seen us with our roes on the table? That we eat roe at every meal, while they starve with the daily soup”.

(Testimony of a Christian. Father Mark of Sihăstria, edited by the monk Filoteu Bălan, Petru Vodă Publishing House, 2007, pp. 44-45).