This priest was a man who spread serenity around him

One day, when I went down to the mine with Ristel Nedelcu (I knew it was his birthday), I said that we would celebrate his birthday in our own way at work. Ristel was a miner’s assistant to Father Codilă from the Orăzii (Oradia) area. This priest was a man who spread serenity around him.

While we were sitting on a piece of plank at horizon 12, the priest took his crowbar and told us that he was going to stabilise the ceiling (the operation of knocking down the pieces of rock left on the walls and ceiling after the explosion of dynamite) in the place where he was staying.

After a few minutes we heard a cry for help. We immediately ran to where the cry came from. Father was buried under a huge whale (whale = large piece of loose rock). He was still moaning. A group of us struggled to move the whale, but to no avail. By the time we pulled him out, he was dead.

I later found out how the whole tragedy happened: the stabilisation of the ceiling and walls takes place in a certain order. Someone told the priest that there was a piece that had not been cut off. When he inserted the crowbar, the whale slipped and caught him…

(Aurel Vișovan – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Re-education in Pitesti Prison, Cluj, Napoca Star Publishing House, 1999, pp. 79-80)