Prison Paterikon: Elder Justin Parvu
The comunist authorities had a double aim: for you not to exist anymore but also to be punished and tormented while you lived.
Fr. Justin on temptations suffered in the Romanian communist prisons:
My dear, we always face temptations. The devil showed Christ our Savior the heights of the mountains, all the riches. “If you bow down to us, if you believe, if you are truly on our side, you will have all you can see from these heights. And if not, death will be yours.”
There are so many temptations now in our lives; even in those torments in prison cells, there were temptations. Because a warden would come and place a sheet of paper in front of you, with a pen or a pencil: “Now write down if you give up all you have believed in up to now, or if you maintain the same position you had when you came here.”
I know that many people fell when they were faced with these temptations. They were tempted with freedom, with their families, with joy - everything except the cross, except suffering. During cross-examinations, these people were hungry, many were avid to smoke - and wardens would set food and cigarettes in front of them, and they would tempt them by saying: “Why do you keep tormenting yourself? Why don’t you tell us what you have in your heart, in your soul, in your mind?” Actually, they didn’t use the words soul or heart too much; they emphasized reason. “See how much you are missing, how many things are in front of you, and you give them up. Tell us! Tell us some names of people you see who are still outside, who you used to know when you were free, and we will shorten your stay here. Look, you received a sentence of 10 years, or 14, or 20. We have the power to reduce this sentence depending on your sincerity and your devotion that you will prove to us!”
And they would enchant you so well, that you almost wanted to believe what they told you.
Interviewer:
I think they were working with satanic powers too.
Fr. Justin:
They were working with all kinds of powers, my dear. But when you saw that in those cells there was so much suffering, so much pain and sorrow, so many people killed, it was very hard to abandon this suffering and take what they were offering you only for a moment. Because, in fact, what was actually going on? If you fell for their temptations, you were broken. You were cut from your own people, but you were cut from them too. Because once you had no more information to give to them, you were good for nothing. They would abandon you. And then you found yourself abandoned by both God and the world. And many people who did this fell into despair, fell into despondence, fell into pain and grief. They were lost. In a short time, six months to a year, they would get sick, they would be engulfed in sadness and grief, and they would see themselves in this situation: neither with God nor with people. And the temptation was so great that they would fall sick or die.
Interviewer:
But psychologically, did they ever recover?
Fr. Justin:
They didn’t recover; very few of them recovered. They were kept isolated so they could have no contact with others who might be able to offer them spiritual solace. They were kept isolated in special cells, and they would be finished there in a few months.
The people in charge had to kill these prisoners because they knew too much from the political life, from this satanic life, and if they were of no use to them anymore, they would kill them in a short time. They would diagnose them with some illness, some grave disease of the lungs or kidneys, and they would give them treatment, but only on paper, writing down that they administered some medication to them. And there was some excellent medication available that could heal them. But this was only on paper, only so the dying could sign this paper. And if you see the cause of death for some of these people (Note: in some of the paperwork that was recovered from the prisons), you will see the treatment they said was applied. But then they would say that it had no effect, that it was a chronic illness or old age; they would justify everything, and of course, death was the fault of prisoners. It wasn’t the fault of those who would keep you in prison endlessly, year after year, with a slice of bread every 3 or 4 days and with a mug of boiled water or salty water. By giving you this food and water, they wouldn’t kill you in a short, rapid time, but they would keep you alive for more time and kill you more efficiently. Because they didn’t want to kill you immediately, they wanted to torment you for as long as possible.
You definitely would be dead because of your illness in half a year or so, you would definitely die, but they wanted you to die tormented and abandoned by everyone. And the stronger and quicker this abandonment, the sooner death would come, because the prisoners couldn’t stand their inner pain and the pain coming from the outside.
Interviewer:
They needed the repentance of the Holy Apostle Peter so they could recover.
Fr. Justin:
These people thought about what their children would say, who they had left behind at home, what their wives would say, what their families would say, since they had someone imprisoned who was either a hero or a traitor. And so this descent into despair happened to those outside as well, those related to the one in prison. Because they would find out quickly what happened in prison - how one person died, how another betrayed someone, how they wrote down some declaration that they disavowed their previous beliefs, and then they were abandoned by the prison administration, they got sick and died within a year. That was the intention of the people in charge - they had a double aim: for you not to exist anymore but also to be punished and tormented while you lived.
Translated from:
https://www.chilieathonita.ro/2022/08/01/ispitele-din-inchisoare-parintele-justin-parvu/
Note: Elder Justin Parvu (born 1919 - died 2013) was sentenced by the communist authorities in Romania in 1949 to 12 years of prison and forced labor for the “crime of plotting against the social order”. He spent time in the following prisons:
Suceava: Aug. 1948 - Aug. 1949
Aiud: Aug. 1949 - Sept. 1950
Baia Sprie: Sept. 1950 - Jan. 1953
Cavnic: Jan. 1953 - Mar. 1954
Gherla: Mar. 1954 - July 1955
Aiud: July 1955 - Feb. 1959
Before being freed, on Jan. 10 1959, he was abusively sentenced without a trial to 3 more years of forced labor. He ended up spending more than 5 years in the following prisons:
Jilava: Feb. 1959 - Mar. 1959
Colonia Culmea (Dobrogea): Mar. 1959 - Oct. 1959
Periprava: Oct. 1959 - May 1964
St. Justin, pray for us who are weak and in need of healing! Pray to God for us, to strengthen us in love for Him +