MARTYRS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH;
KILLED AND KIDNAPPED BY THE KGB
By
Paul LEU
[Abstract in English]
The two millennium old Christianity history had over the
years more enemies like: Heathens, Moslems and Communists. Those created the
martyrs of Christianity and of the national truth.
As everybody knows, the sacrifice of Constantin Brancoveanu
and his family for keeping Romanian faith and stopping the Ottoman expansion;
it is less known the sacrifice Bishop Grigorie and his son, Victor Leu,
kidnapped, tortured and sentenced to death by the KGB. They were number one
opponents to Moscow’s politics to
destroy the faith and to expansion.
Their sacrifice, reconstituted from the archives, is a proof
that the Romanians stood up against Moscow’s politics; using the power of the
word and the power of the arms (1944-1962, see Vasile Motrescu and his supporters) to protect their faith, dignity,
honor and freedom of their country.
Bishops Grigorie and
Victor Leu martyr was reconstituted with the help of documents made by communist collaborationists and were found in
the Archive of the Securitate; also
with the help of the secret family
documents and personal finding
by the author.
In his quality of eye witness and participant during and
after Second World War, the author
confers the quality of documents to the typical events that he selected to present.
With this rich source of information (SRI Archive; MAI; and
Corneliu Leu’s volume “Cartea
episcopilor cruciati”, published by Editura Realitatea in
2001); the researcher succeeded to present the spirit of that society,
the seizures of the historical moment, the
cause of the structural, moral, political and economical collapse of Romania after the Soviet occupation by the Red Army.
The author also
presents aspects of the terror and murder that were going on in Romanian Gulag without any difference of
social class or religion; a well known
method of the communists to “reeducate” or exterminate millions of open minded people of the country.
“Martyrs of people’s
church” [“Martyrs of Christianity; Killed and Kidnapped by the KGB”], by Paul Leu, has two parts:
1. Bishop Grigorie Leu killed by communist criminals; and
2. Archbishop Victor Leu, kidnapped and sentenced to death
by the KGB.
This historic publication is based on documents from
Direcţia Generală a Securităţii from R.P. Romania; Tribunalul Militar Regional
from Bucharest and Direcţia Penitenciarelor şi a Coloniilor de Muncă“, published by Corneliu
Leu in “The Book of the Crusader
Bishops”, edited by Realitatea, 2001, 340 p. It was also based on family
documents and confessions of people that participated in the events. The book
is based on documents extracted from a
large number of the Romanian security
service's files, concerning the
anticommunist activities of a part of
the Romanian clergy in the years 1948 - 1954 for the salvation of the Christian faith and the democratic values abolished by Moskow's
oppression. It describes the assistance
given to them by Western Churches, culminating with the consecration in
Munich of a Bishop of all the free Romanian emigrants and the beginning at
BBC and Radio-Munich of a permanent religious program in the Romanian language, becoming very popular among the
listeners from the country dominated by
the atheist government. As the "Etherial
Church", these liturgical services and antiatheistic sermons
broadcasted every Sunday by the exiled Romanian priest Vasile Leu and
a lot of his followers, constituted for
a half a century a real spiritual support for the oppressed Christian population of Romania.
Through real shuddering documents, the book describes the
beginnings of this resistance movement
and its leader’s martyrium. These files
concern the prosecutions of two
Romanian bishops and a lot of other names of
the personalities involved in
the Romanian resistance. The development of the events is as follows: The Bishop Grigorie Leu (1881 - 1949) is a
symbol of the Romanian National
Orthodox Resistance against communism and its atheistic aggression on our
traditional spirituality, against the Stalinist government and the occupation of a part of the Romanian
territory. Grigorie Leu, the scholar Bishop, was terrorized and killed by the soviet communists because he protected the poor and forgotten ones; for
his religious beliefs in Christ and for
protecting the Romanian values.
He is the continuation of the many generations that served
the Moldavian rulers over the centuries. Unlike his ancestors that fought with
the sword against the country’s enemies during Stefan the Great period; he
fought with the power of the word against the communist regime.
Bishop Grigorie Leu’s activities, followed by his son’s,
Victor Vasile Leu, are based on the
principle: “Romanian Church is not above the nation, but makes a harmonious union with the people that serves and
blesses in its own language, spirit and
soul.”
He protested against both communistic Law, meant to put the
Romanian Church in the service of the
atheist government, and Moscow’s tendency
to control the Romanian
Diaspora's Church. By its position, he represented the resistance of many Romanian orthodox priests
and bishops. The others were arrested
and he was killed by his God's enemies in 1949, when in the country, the collectivization of the
agriculture, totally disapproved by
him, was set up. His son Vasile Leu, also a priest, was sent secretly in
the West to advise and alarm the
Romanian emigrants' communities concerning the
danger to be infiltrated by Moscow’s agents deviating their churches, manipulating the believers and obstaculating
a real Romanian resistance in exile.
With ecumenical help, he organized the churches of the
Romanian Diaspora, founded many Romanian parishes in Italy, France, Western
Germany and Austria, assured the
support for other Romanians escaped from the occupied country and produced, for the first time, in Romanian language,
the religious programs broadcasted by
BBC, Radio France, and Radio Munich and,
from its beginnings.
At a meeting in Salzburg, the representatives of the
Romanian emigrants elected him as a bishop and, after that, he was consecrated
in the Orthodox Church of Munich as
Archbishop of all the Romanians from
Europe and Near Orient, with the
name Vasile-Victor Leu. He was very active organizing with his authority all the European communities
of the Romanian emigrants, putting in contact
and involving in common activities
their leaders, the high politicians,
members of the former Romanian governments, the two former kings: Carol II and Michael I and,
also, the chief of the
Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen Royal House.
He had contacts with other Romanian leaders from USA and
organized a common meeting in the
Romanian Church of Paris which he succeeded in resetting it up. Recognized as the spiritual leader of
the emigrants and encouraged by this success, he began to organize the common
resistance of all the Romanian
communities in the World and even a Romanian exile-government. Thus,
he became one of the most important
enemies of Moscow’s intentions.
His anticommunist sermons were influencing both the Romanian
Diaspora and the mind of the oppressed
population within the country who was secretly
listening to his patriotic and religious programs broadcasted from the
West. With its well known methods, the KGB
organized a spying action in
Austria and kidnapped him.
After being prosecuted in Moscow, he was sent to a puppet
Romanian military court which condemned
him to death. The book offers documents
on all the details of the
history of this event with all its branches, within the context of the inside and external Romanian
resistance.
However, Bishop Victor-Vasile was not executed. Having
passed through all the prisons of
Romania with the tag 5949, he was
released in 1964. His file in the
security archives is 300 pages long and reveals that he made no
compromise with the authorities.
After his release, Bishop Victor-Vasile refused to join the
Romanian patriarchate, but instead set off for the monastery of the Old
Calendarists at Slatioara in Moldavia,
where he was accepted as a bishop at first. However, canonical differences with
the Old Calendarists forced him to
return to Bucharest. It appears that Bishop Victor-Vasile took a
stricter attitude towards the Romanian
new calendarists, and also could not recognize
the validity of the consecration of Metropolitan Galacteon, since it
had been carried out in 1935, after the
calendar change.
On the other hand, the Old Calendarists did not accept his
consecration because he did not have ordination papers, and because the ROCOR
had no records of his consecration.
Bishop Victor-Vasile
now set about ordaining priests and hierarchs on his own. One of them was
called Clement and another –Casian Timofte.
However, his activity was confined to his flat in Bucharest
because the communists placed him under
virtual house arrest in order to restrict his
contact with the faithful. That is why, when he died in 1978, he was
taken to Cernica monastery and buried
by the new calendarists there.
*
His books are horted in the mast important national,
academical and university librarys in the world: The Library of Congress, The
British Library, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Ősterreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Bibliotéque
National de France, Instituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, Najonalbibliotek of Narway, Biblioteca
Nacional de Portugal, Royal Library
Schweden, Oxford University Library, University Library of Washington, Cornell University Library of New Jork,
Indiana University Libraries, Université
de Paris 4, Biblioteca de Catalunya etc. etc.
*
SUMMARY
II. Victor Leu, Archbishop from Gibraltar to Red Sea ……126
1. Biographical information ……129
2. The Escape from the Socialist Camp……139
The Exode and its Causes……139
The Escape……147
3. The Naming and the Oath for the new Clerical position……56
The Clerical Opponents……165
4. Orthodox Missionary from Gibraltar to Red Sea……172
Collaboration with King Mihai I of Romania……174
The Support from Carol the 2nd ……182
In Swetzerland……191
In Spain……200
Visiting Bishop Visarion Puiu……205
The Archbishop Residency in London……210
Preparations for The 3rd World War……219
Efforts for Clerical Unity……237
Contribution for the ending of the civil war in Greece……234
The conflict with the Anglicans……241
Paris, the 2nd Archbishop Residency……247
Into the Near East……260
5.Kidnapped and sentenced to death by the KGB……272
At Liublianca……275
The Death Sentence……285
In the Romanian Gulag ……294
6. The passing to Good’s Kingdom ……323
7. For conclusion……331
Notes……345
Special Bibliography ……352
Echos……361
English Summary ……374
Index……381