“This young man was so pure that the rest of us young people pronounced his name with a real piousness considering him the saint of this prison

Maxim Virgil, from the commune of Sălciile, Prahova County, was sentenced to hard labor in 1942, during the regime of General Ion Antonescu.

This young man was so pure in heart that the rest of us, also young at the time, spoke his name with genuine reverence, considering him the saint of that prison.[¹]

Despite his gentle nature and modest bearing, everyone called him “Mr. Maxim.”

Even after 1990, when old comrades were long retired and everyone addressed one another informally, Maxim Virgil remained “Mr. Maxim” to all.

Given his saintly Christian demeanor and the twenty-two uninterrupted years of imprisonment he endured, none of us ever dared to raise our heads too high in his presence. Yet he remained, for all, “Mr. Maxim.”

(Gheorghe Andreica, Târgșorul Nou. The Imprisonment of Minors, 1948–1950, Printeuro Publishing House, Ploiești, 2000, pp. 118, 127)

[¹] This refers to the Târgșor prison, where Virgil Maxim was held between 1948 and 1950. Although he was twenty-six years old at the time, he was transferred to Târgșor because the Securitate still listed him as a student — he had been in the eighth grade when first arrested under the Antonescu regime.