PRIEST GEORGE ZEMORA – A SUFFERER IN THE COMMUNIST GULAG Florin DOBREI Abstract: In the mid-twentieth century, in an Eastern Europe abandoned by the Western powers beyond the ‘Iron Curtain’, the Church – the only institution that had the courage to teach a doctrine different than the official ‘materialist atheist’ one – lived through relentless moments. Beaten, marginalized, ostracized by a ‘new society’ whose supreme postulate was to create the ‘new man’ utterly alienated from God, the Church ministers experienced terror and repression (some even death), their only ‘fault’ being to have confessed, served and followed Christ. All these sufferers – some known, others obscure – have written, through their sacrifice and the courage of their testimony, a golden page in the book of immortality of the Church and the Romanian people. One such sufferer (less known in the specialty historiography) was priest George Zemora from Sebeșel (Alba County), spiritual pastor in two parishes of Hunedoara County, Vulcan I and Lunca, who was arrested and interrogated in 1947- 1948, and then relocated to house arrest in Mănăstirea, Călărași County (1951-1955). Keywords: communist gulag, suffering, atheist ideology, priest George Zemora, Hunedoara County. Preliminaries Among the many Orthodox priests suffering in the Romanian communist Gulag – the Romanian Orthodox Church estimates that between 1948 and 1964, one in four priests were arrested, interrogated and sentenced; namely, of the approximately 12,000 existing clergy at the time, about 3,000 of them knew and lived the regime of the prison camps. Senior Lecturer, “Eftimie Murgu” University (Faculty of Social Sciences), Reşiţa, Romania. 16th International Symposium on Science, Theology and Arts (ISSTA 2017) Some 1,800 died in unimaginable conditions1 – among them there were more than thirty clerics from Hunedoara2. The first wave of arrests was recorded in the months from March to August 1945. The suspects, accused of belonging to the Legionary Movement, were imprisoned in the camp at Caracal (Olt county); released shortly thereafter, they remained in the attention of the authorities. Under charges of ‘possession of fascist publications’, the arrests resumed in the spring of 1946, on the background of the process of Marshal Ion Antonescu; moderated for a moment by Prime Minister Petru Groza, the son of a priest from Hunedoara (born in Băcia) and member of the Diocesan Synod of the Archdiocese of Sibiu (1911-1958).3 After 1948, there were constant, massive waves of arrests recorded between 1949- 1952 and 1956-1959. The investigations continued even after 1964, the year of general amnesty for all political prisoners in Romania. 1. Priest George Zemora – biographical data To the list of suffering clergy from Hunedoara must also be added the priest George Zemora; who was priest in the parishes of Vulcan (Petrosani Deanery) and Lunca (Brad Deanery), whose life, service, and – above all – drama will be outlined, especially based on documents stored in the Archive of the Archdiocese of Arad4. From the beginning, it 1 Ioan DURĂ, “Ierarhi ai Bisericii Ortodoxe Române îndepărtaţi din scaun şi trimişi în recluziune monastică de către autorităţile comuniste în anii 1944-1981”, in Altarul Banatului, no. 10-12/2002, p. 35. 2 Vasile MANEA, Preoţi ortodocşi în închisorile comuniste, 3rd ed., Alba Iulia, Edit. Reîntregirea, 2004, passim; Gabriel BASA, “Preoţi, teologi şi călugări hunedoreni în închisorile comuniste”, in Altarul Banatului, no. 4-6/2005, p. 72-85; Cicerone IONIŢOIU, Victimele terorii comuniste. Arestaţi, torturaţi, întemniţaţi, ucişi. Dicţionar, Bucureşti, Edit. Maşina de scris, 2000, passim; Florin DOBREI, Istoria vieții bisericești a românilor hunedoreni, Reșița, Edit. Eftimie Murgu, 2010, p. 585-592; Pavel VESA, Clerici arădeni și hunedoreni deținuți politici (1945-1989), Deva, Edit. Episcopiei Devei și Hunedoarei, 2014, passim; Adrian Nicolae PETCU, Preoți hunedoreni pătimitori în temnițele comuniste, Cluj-Napoca, Edit. Argonaut – Deva, Edit. Episcopiei Devei și Hunedoarei, 2016, p. 20-115 etc. 3 Cristian VASILE, Biserica Ortodoxă Română în primul deceniu comunist, Bucureşti, Edit. Curtea Veche, 2005, p. 110, 232-244. 4 The cited documents were reported and made available through the courtesy of Mr. Adrian Nicolae Petcu from Bucharest, a well-known researcher of the Romanian 64 ARS LITURGICA. From the Image of Glory to the Images of the Idols of Modernity is worth noting that his sufferings are too little known; in the specialty literature, until recently5 no reference was made about him, on the foreground being the presentation of the biography of priests arrested and imprisoned, many of whom perished in the communist labour colonies and prisons, which were in fact extermination camps of Romanian intellectuals. Just as little known is the dedication to priests of Patriarch Justinian Marina (1948-1977) and Bishop Andrei Magieru of Arad (1936- 1960), the first falsely called the ‘Red Patriarch’, and the latter blamed for removal of the well-known confessor Arsenie Boca from the famous monastery of Prislop, Hunedoara County. About priest George Zemora, it is known that he was born on February 25, 1901 in the village of Sebeșel – home of the more famous realist painter, graphic artist and book illustrator Sava Henţia (1848-1904) – from Săsciori Township, Alba County. After primary and secondary schoolin Alba Iulia, he graduated from the Normal School in Sibiu (1916- 1920). He then practiced as a teacher for a short time (1920-1921) in the same locality. During 1921-1925, he attended the prestigious Theological Academy of Sibiu, was ordained in 1925, first deacon, then priest. He served for a while – probably – as a confessor priest in one of the schools in the Archdiocese of Sibiu. In August 1929, he was appointed, and then installed, as a priest-parish in the Orthodox Parish of Vulcan I (with Coroieşti filial) in the south of Hunedoara County. He pastored there for over two decades, until March 19516. In Vulcan, an important mining centre of the Jiu Valley, he cared closely for the beautiful church – dedicated to ‘Saint Nicholas’ – where he served, an edifice raised between 1907-1914 and 1919-19217, through the care of priests Sebastian Stanca (1878-1947)8, and Sebastian Rusan concentration camp phenomenon in mid twentieth century, whom I thank in this way. 5 A. N. PETCU, op. cit., p. 111-114 (sources: Archives of the Archdiocese of Arad, file III- 213-1948; Archive of the National Council for Studying the Security Archives, “Criminal” fund, file 74.112; IDEM, “Information” fund, file 867.234); Florin DOBREI, “Viața bisericească în satul Lunca – istorie și actualitate”, in Florin ILIEŞ (ed.), Lunca (Nevoieș) – repere monografice, Cluj-Napoca, Edit. Argonaut, 2016, p. 145-148. 6 A. N. PETCU, op. cit., p. 111-112. 7 Arhiva Mitropoliei Ardealului, fond „Protopopiatul Ortodox Român Jiu”, dosar I- 89/1927; Florin DOBREI, Bisericile ortodoxe hunedorene, Reșița, Edit. Eftimie Murgu, 2011, p. 134. 8 Parish in Vulcan (1907-1911), then adviser of the Diocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj 65 16th International Symposium on Science, Theology and Arts (ISSTA 2017) (1884-1956)9. Here he purchased a house which he renovated and furnished as a rectory. Similarly, in the nearby village of Dealu Babii, a vacant parish that he managed between 1929 and 1937, he built the premises of current primary school10. In an interwar Jiu Valley undergoing economic, demographic and cultural boom, priest George Zemora, along with other Romanian clergy strove to raise the cultural level of his parishioners, to be a beacon and a real spiritual guiding benchmark11, both as a priest in the pulpit of the church in Vulcan and as a teacher of religion in the schools there. After 1948, with the removal of this school subject from the timetable, the worthy priest, despite the restrictions of the new ‘regime of popular democracy’ taught catechism lessons to students – every Sunday afternoon – in the place of worship, forming, with their help, a much- appreciated church choir12. 2. The passions of priest George Zemora But times became troubled. On December 31, 1947, priest George Zemora was detained by security, “as part of the general measures of screening”. Following the intervention of Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan of Transylvania (1920-1955) to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Teohari Georgescu, he was released on February 3, 1948. Catechization of the youth and organization of the church choir would now constitute serious charges. In October 1949, the militia prevented him from exerting his intense pastoral activity and from receiving any goods from believers, on account of those customary ‘revenues of the epitrachelion’ due to the parish. Receiving then – inevitably – the label of “hostile element towards (1919-1940). Cf. Mircea PĂCURARIU, Dicționarul teologilor români, 3rd ed., Sibiu, Edit. Andreană, 2014, p. 605-606. 9 Parish in Vulcan (1912-1929), then bishop of Maramureş (1947-1948), archbishop of Suceava and Maramureş (1948-1950) and metropolitan of Moldova (1950-1956). Cf. Ibidem, p. 569. 10 Mircea BARON / Petru HODOR (ed.), Vulcan. Schițe monografice, Vulcan, Edit. Realitatea Românească, 2003, p. 216; Traian MOŞIC, Din cele trăite printre oamenii de la izvoarele Jiului, Constanța, Ex Ponto, 2009, passim. 11 Mircea BARON, Cărbune şi societate în Valea Jiului. Perioada interbelică, Petroşani, Edit. Universitas, 1998, passim. 12 A. N. PETCU, op. cit., p. 112. 66 ARS LITURGICA. From the Image of Glory to the Images of the Idols of Modernity the working class” for the appeal he had among believers in an area eminently made up of workers, they went on to compromise him. Since May 1950, for several months, several Hebrews, former Communist ‘illegals’ and members of the Hebrew Democratic Committee (satellite organization of the Romanian Workers' Party) were questioned, who, in their statements, similar in content and language, argued that during the Legionary rebellion of January 1941, priest George Zemora made the basement of his house available for them to be investigated; yet, the charges could not be proven.