Unbearable mental tension due to conditions of slow extermination
Comment: Here is an eloquent episode on the temptations that arise in prisons because of the inhuman living conditions created to eradicate the “mystical bandits”. These temptations, caused by the exhaustion of patience, gnawed by too much torture, lead the confessors even to the point of hating their fellow men, or worse, to madness.
In order to better understand how difficult the spiritual struggle was in the conditions of the dungeon, we should point out that the following action takes place in Casimca Jilavei, after the death of Costache Oprișan, where 16 people, grouped four to a room, were destined to die slowly. The characters of the story are none other than the confessors Gheorghe Calciu, Marcel Petrișor (Mircea) and Iosiv V. Iosif. To get an idea of the miserable conditions there, we should remember that Jilava was an underground prison and the walls of the Casimca were constantly covered with damp and mould, hunger was constant, beatings were regular and the most basic hygiene was completely lacking:
WAITING to see who else would die, taking the death of the swallow chicks more and more seriously, the mental tension in Cell 4 had become unbearable. It was like a cauldron ready to explode. Whatever one said, even the smallest thing, another felt the need to contradict him.
— The hairdresser has two arms, one of which is movable… — said Mircea in a whisper, telling Joseph something about prisoners’ haircuts, which may or may not be done in the various prisons.
And Calciu waited for him to contradict him:
— You idiot! Where have you seen a hair-cutting machine where both arms don’t move?
Joseph was stunned, and Mircea didn’t know what to say. What had Ghită come up with to insult him for something that everyone knew had only one movable arm? And the argument began again, each man using his own arguments, waiting for the day when he could prove the other right with a pair of scissors in his hand.
And the arguments went on and on, ending only when the insults and promises of more arguments ended, like:
— You’ll see who was right then!
Another time, Joseph told Mircea that the door to the toilet at the end of the corridor was yellow.
— What do you mean, yellow, when it’s red all day? — jumped Calciu. — What the hell! Haven’t you noticed in all this time that it’s been given a ‘minimum’—as they call the mini—just like our doors?
— You’re a wimp! Are you going to start that again, with the lawnmower? — Joseph apostrophizes him.
— You’re both stupid! — he jumps up and down. — Deny the obvious. Either you’re colour-blind or you’re seeing things wrong!
And the discussion or argument goes on until all the theories about light and colours have been exhausted.
Then, each time there was silence, after the tension of the discussion had been exhausted, each felt that he hated the other to the point of wishing him to be destroyed (as if that wasn’t what his enemies wanted!).
But death and dissolution were still a long way off. And each in turn guarded the holes at the bottom of the cell door with extraordinary tenacity, to prevent the guard from sneaking through to catch them leaning against the wall or at the end of their beds. To do so would have meant disaster, not only in the form of a report to the prison authorities and the “twenty-five at the bottom,” but also the reproaches of those caught in the irregular position, worse and harder to bear than the release they mutually desired. Especially when they could see no way out of their predicament.
But all of them, deep down, sleeping or watching, prayed and waited. But what—short of a miracle—they didn’t know either…
(Marcel Petrișor – Past Lives of Lords, Slaves and Companions)