Vasile Aftenie
Vasile Aftenie | |
---|---|
Auxiliary Bishop of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia | |
Church | Romanian Greek Catholic Church |
Appointed | 12 April 1940 |
Term ended | 10 May 1950 |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1 January 1926
( Priest) by Vasile Suciu |
Consecration | 5 June 1940
( Bishop) by Alexandru Nicolescu |
Personal details | |
Born | 14 June 1899 |
Died | 10 May 1950 Văcărești Prison, Bucharest, Romanian People's Republic[1] | (aged 50)
Sainthood | |
Feast day | 10 May |
Beatified | 2 June 2019 Liberty Field, Blaj, Romania by Pope Francis |
Canonized | 2 December 2019 |
Vasile Aftenie (14 June 1899 – 10 May 1950) was a
He was beaten until his death in the communist regime's jails for refusing to abandon his Greek-Catholic faith and the United Romanian Church. Pope Francis personally presided over his beatification on 2 June 2019.[3][4][5][6]
Biography
Early life and education
Born in Lodroman village, Alba County, on 14 May 1899, from his parents Petru and Agafia,[1] Aftenie began his primary studies in his native village and high school courses at Blaj. In 1917 he was drafted by the army and was in Galicia and Italy at the front. After the end of World War I in 1918, he began law school at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, but then decided in 1919 to enroll at the Academy of Theology of Blaj, and was later sent to Rome at the Greek College of the Saint Athanasius. He took a doctorate in philosophy and theology in 1925 and then returned to Romania.
Career
On 1 January 1926, Aftenie was
His co-consecrators were
Arrest, torture and death
In 1948, the new
In October 1948 Aftenie severely reprimanded the 36 former Greek-Catholic priests who had signed up for Orthodoxy and arrived from Cluj[12] to the Patriarchate of Bucharest to bring their so-called adherence to the Romanian Orthodox Church, abandoning the Romanian Church United with Rome. The delegates from Cluj were at the Capșa Restaurant when Bishop Vasile Aftenie scolded them in public.[1][13] More later, many of them have confessed that they were pressed to do it.[1] Being a man of dialogue and sincere goodwill, therefore wrongly considered compliant by the regime, he was even offered, in exchange for his "conversion", to become Orthodox patriarch of Bucharest. He replied: "Neither my faith nor my nation is for sale".
Aftenie was arrested on 28[14] or 29[15] October 1948[14] in Piața Romană,[16] just after leaving St. Basil's Church, and taken, together with the other five Greek-Catholic bishops, to Dragoslavele[1] and from February 1949 to Căldărușani Monastery , which had been refashioned into a prison.
On 10 May 1949 he was taken to the
Another priest brought a cross permitted by the communist authorities at his grave with his initials and the year of his death several days after that written: "VA = 1950".
In 1990, a white marble tombstone with a picture of the bishop was erected for him; his grave became a place of pilgrimage and is adorned with candles and flowers, he is called for help and assistance.[20][21]
The beatification process
Soon after, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of people come and pray to his grave. It is said that wonders happened here, to the prayers of the pilgrims, in response from God.
The cause for the
Since each bishop has the right to be buried in the church he served, the bones of Bishop Vasile Aftenie were exhumed[24] in 2010, and his remains taken from Bellu cemetery to a Greek-Catholic church in Bucharest for storage on 13 May 2010, a request for his beatification having been submitted the year before.[24][25]
On 19 March 2019 Pope Francis approved the beatification of Aftenie and six other Greek-Catholic martyr bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century.[26][27] On 25 March it was announced that Pope Francis himself would beatify Aftenie and the other six bishops on 2 June 2019 at Blaj's Liberty Field.[6] He was beatified with the other six Bishops on that day in Blaj's Liberty Field.[3][4][5]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 973-96661-5-9
- ^ "Beato Basilio Aftenie – Vescovo e martire". www.santiebeati.it (in Italian). Retrieved 21 August 2022.
- ^ a b "A joyous celebration in Romania as Pope Francis beatifies seven bishop-martyrs". America Magazine. 2 June 2019.
- ^ a b Dumitrache, Nicolae; Winfield, Nicole (2 June 2019). "Pope apologizes for history of discrimination against Roma". AP News.
- ^ a b "Pope Warns Of Divisive Ideologies As He Beatifies Romanian Bishops". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
- ^ a b "Pope to beatify martyrs, visit Marian shrine on trip to Romania". National Catholic Reporter. 25 March 2019.
- ^ [Annuario Pontificio, Year 1941.]
- ^ [Annuario Pontificio, Year 1951.]
- ^ [Le Petit Episcopalist, Issue 121.]
- ^ [Le Petit Episcopalist, Issue 155, Additions / Corrections (front)]
- ^ [Revue des Ordinations Épiscopales, Issue 1940, Number 37]
- ^ [In Cluj, in a rally organized by the communist authorities, on the order of Stalin. On 1 October 1948, 36 Romanian Greek Catholic priests including an archpriest, signed under psychological pressure, the abandonment of the Romanian Church United with Rome and adherence to the Romanian Orthodox Church. On the same day, the Greek Catholic Bishop of Cluj, Iuliu Hossu, issued a decree of excommunication ipso facto, concerning all the participants of the Cluj rally.]
- ^ "Cicerone Ionițoiu", p. 3 in Episcopii greco-catolici. Procesul comunismului
- ^ ISBN 973-645-162-3.
- ^ Different sources report different dates: santiebeati.it writes October 28, Cicero Ionițoiu December 29th
- ^ [Roman Square: in Romanian, Piața Romană. It is a public square located in the center of the Capital of Romania]
- ^ [Alexandru Nikolski / Alexandru Nicolschi (born Boris Grünberg on 2 June 1915, in Tiraspol – died on 16 April 1992 in Bucharest) was a general of Securitate.]
- ^ (in Romanian) Episcopul Vasile Aftenie at the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic site; accessed May 15, 2012
- ^ Vasile Aftenie. findagrave.com.
- ^ [Silvestru Augustin Prunduş and Clemente Plăianu, Catholicism and Romanian Orthodoxy. Short history of the Romanian United Church. Christian Life Publishing House, Cluj 1994.]
- ^ [Silvestru Augustin Prunduş and Clemente Plăianu, The 12 Martyrs Bishops, Publisher "The Christian Life", Cluj 1998.]
- ^ "Episcopul catolic hâtru cu destin de martir". evz.ro. 14 May 2010
- ^ Episcop greco-catolic roman exhumat pentru beatificare. bistrita.citynews.ro. 13 May 2010
- ^ a b "Comunicat privind recunoaşterea osemintelor Episcopului Vasile Aftenie | Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică". www.bru.ro.
- ^ (in Romanian) Mirela Corlățan, "Episcopul catolic hâtru cu destin de martir", Evenimentul Zilei, 14 May 2010; accessed May 15, 2012
- ^ Hannah Brockhaus. "Seven 20th-century Romanian bishops declared martyrs". Catholic News Agency.
- ^ "Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi". Tägliches Bulletin (in Italian). Presseamt des Heiligen Stuhls. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
Bibliography
- Sergiu Grossu, Le calvaire de la Roumanie Chrétienne, Éditions France-Empire, Paris, 1987 ISBN 978-2704805280.
- Biography on the canonization of the bishops and Vasile Aftenie
- Mihaela Olău: Episcop Vasile Aftenie. Editura Galaxia Gutenberg, 2012, ISBN 978-973-141-461-4.