An interview with New Confessor Iulian Stoicescu

Q: What is the main quality of a priest? Fr. Iulian: Perseverance in prayer.

Translated by Grig Gheorghiu

What is the greatest evil in this world?

Fr. Iulian: The lack of faith.

How can we forgive when it is very hard for us to do so?

Fr. Iulian: By asking from God the strength to forgive.

How can we, and especially priests, maintain our watchfulness?

Fr. Iulian: By persevering in prayer.

Are you sorry for anything in particular that you did in your life?

Fr. Iulian: I am sorry for the things I didn’t do.

How can we escape loneliness?

Fr. Iulian: We need to get closer to God and we will not be lonely anymore.

How big does a parish need to be so it can stay under the supervision of the priest?

Fr. Iulian: As small as possible.

Why are there still wars?

Fr. Iulian: They are the work of the devil.

When we do a good deed, is it due mostly to us or God?

Fr. Iulian: To God.

What is the relationship between love and truth for a Christian?

Fr. Iulian: Truth is love and love is truth.

What is more useful, studying nature or reading books?

Fr. Iulian: Reading religious books.

How long should we pray during the day?

Fr. Iulian: In the morning, at noon, and in the evening.

What can we do for people who have fallen asleep outside the faith, but yet we care for them?

Fr. Iulian: We pray for them and we can commemorate them during Divine Liturgy.

How can people change their lives and become faithful Orthodox?

Fr. Iulian: By attending Divine Liturgy.

What is the most useful prayer?

Fr. Iulian: The prayer said from the heart.

To whom do you recommend the prayer of the heart? Is it possible today?

Fr. Iulian: Of course, it is possible for everyone, it only depends on us.

What virtues are the foundation for all the other virtues?

Fr. Iulian: The three main virtues: faith, hope, and love.

What is the main quality of a priest?

Fr. Iulian: Perseverance in prayer.

Does a priest need to answer political questions?

Fr. Iulian: In no circumstance.

How long do we need to be patient? Do we need to tolerate wrongdoings?

Fr. Iulian: We need to be patient until the end. Blessed are the ones who endure!

Why are there more women in church than men?

Fr. Iulian: Because they are more sensitive to religious life.

What should our relationship be with people of other Christian denominations?

Fr. Iulian: As close as possible spiritually.

How about with non-Christians?

Fr. Iulian: We need to persevere in prayer for them as well.

What can you tell us about the relationship between a spiritual father and his spiritual children?

Fr. Iulian: The main spiritual duty of a spiritual father is the saving of his spiritual children.

What is the minimum that people need to do so they can be considered Christian?

Fr. Iulian: They need to know and fulfill God’s commandments.

What do you appreciate most in a person?

Fr. Iulian: Devotion for all that is holy.

Have you ever met holy people?

Fr. Iulian: Elder Paisie from Sihastria. I went and confessed to him.

What was the hardest moment of your life?

Fr. Iulian: When I had to separate myself from my family and my church (Note: Fr. Iulian was imprisoned by the communists from 1960 to 1964).

How about the most pleasant moment?

Fr. Iulian: When I came back home from prison.

How do we need to pray in our families?

Fr. Iulian: It is good to pray together as a family.

What Saints do you have a special devotion to?

Fr. Iulian: St. Nicholas and St. Paraskevi.

What did your mother mean to you?

Fr. Iulian: Education for the priesthood.

Are you afraid of your passing from this life?

Fr. Iulian: When the moment comes; but now, I am not.

If we forgive without measure, do we not run the risk of not eradicating evil? What will we do with people who persist in doing evil to other people?

Fr. Iulian: We need to persevere in prayer and forgiveness until the end.

What do parents need to do for their children so they become good Christians?

Fr. Iulian: Parents need to pray, so they can teach their children to pray.

Short biography of Fr. Iulian Stoicescu

Father Iulian Stoicescu was born on April 11, 1911, in Ganesti, a village set on a hill, with almost 200 families. His parents, Ioan and Maria, had nine children: five boys and four girls. His father was a church administrator.

He attended elementary school in the village, then he spent eight years at the Seminary in Curtea de Arges. He used to go home every summer and work hard in the fields and around the house. After Seminary, he attended the School of Theology in Bucharest. He worked for the Chancellery of the Bucharest Archdiocese until he was ordained.

He married Eugenia Castaian on August 27, 1939, and was ordained as a deacon in September 1939, when he started to serve at the Tiganesti Monastery. After two years, he was ordained as a priest and spiritual father at St. Ecaterina (St. Katherine) Church in Bucharest, while at the same time continuing to serve at the Tiganesti Monastery.

From 1944 until 1960, when he was arrested, he served at the “Defenders of the Motherland” parish in Bucharest. In 1960 he was sentenced to nine years in prison for “plotting against the state” (Note: this was a common accusation against priests and monks during those years in communist Romania). He was among the last to be freed during the general amnesty in 1964, after he passed successively through the prisons of Uranus, Jilava, and Aiud.

He was prevented from serving in his parish, therefore he served eight years at the “Martisor” Church, after which time he was sent by the Romanian Patriarch Justinian to serve at the “Flaminda” (in Romanian: “the hungry one”) Church on 17 Olimp Street in Bucharest, for the “moral and material restoration” of that church.

He retired, weary, in 1993.

Fr. Iulian fell asleep peacefully in the Lord on September 30, 1996.

An ordinary biography, at first glance…And yet Fr. Iulian was called “a priest of fire” by those who knew him.