“This man truly had the gift of humility”

I spent 4 years with Father Ilie Lăcătușu in Periprava, in the Delta. He was generally known for his great interiority and silence; you rarely heard him say anything, and when he did, what he said was very important, often urging us to pray when we were in some danger. About this man I can say that he truly had the gift of humility. He was always trying to be unobtrusive, to be perceived as unimportant.

I remember a wonderful story from the Delta in which Father Ilie played a very important role. On the 30th of January we were sent to the colony, to the canal, to cut reeds. Can you imagine what that meant in the winter cold? Death. We were all scared, especially as we had seen our guards with machine guns, around four of them. They were probably waiting to execute us, thinking we’d refuse the order. There was a water opening of about forty acres and the reeds were just deep enough. We all started mumbling and not really going into the water. They ordered us to go in and pull out two sheaves at a time. Who were we doing this for? It didn’t make any sense. Man, how do you get into the water? You step in a deepened portion of the bank, nobody’s going to get you out of there. I was reluctant at first. But Father Ilie had a very firm word and encouraged us all: “Hey, we’re going in because they’re thinking bad thoughts, they’re shooting at us. Let’s get in the water so that the Mother of God and the Three Hierarchs can get us out safely”. Well, we’re in.

We went in, up to our chins. I cut the sheaves nicely. And we were all amazed that we were working on land. Some up to their chests, some up to their necks, some up to halfway, how we all fit in there. And we pulled. We were in the water for about three hours, pulling the two sheaves ashore. But it wasn’t just a matter of cutting it with leaves, it had to be nice, cleaned, measured, cut to size, and there was -30° frost outside, 20-25 cm of ice, you could see the yellow water lily blooming under the ice. Above we had birds that followed us all the time and below the flowers under the ice. Well, we were all unharmed and wet. The water ran off us. It was a great miracle. That morning when we went in it was foggy, cloudy and cold, so you felt it to the bone. And suddenly the sun came out, my boys, it was daylight. It was so hot, even the guards were amazed.

We took off our clothes and they dried like the hottest oven, so steam came out of everything. We put on our shoes, got dressed and went to the camp. And so the Mother of God and the Three Hierarchs were with us and helped us, even on the 30th of January. And I tell you that there was not a single sick person, not a single internment, there was nothing. And this is thanks to the prayers of Father Ilie, otherwise I think we would all have died…

(Fr. Justin Pârvu – From the dungeons to the synod)