08/06/2022
Ilie Lăcătușu
Ilie Lăcătușu (born December 6, 1909 , Crăpăturile village, now Țepești village , Vâlcea county - d. July 22, 1983 , Bucharest ) was a member of the Legionary Movement , a political prisoner and Romanian priest, whose body was discovered in 1998. mummified.
Biography
Ilie Lăcătușu was born on December 6, 1909 in Crăpăturile village ( Vâlcea county ) (currently Țepești village in Tetoiu commune), being the second child - out of the seven - of Marin and Maria Lăcătușu, simple peasants. His father was a church singer, which brought the child closer to the Church from a very young age.
Wanting to become a priest, after graduating from school in his native village, he enrolled in the Theological Seminary "Saint Nicholas" in Râmnicu-Vâlcea (1923-1930), whose courses he graduated with the Diploma of Virtues "for soul skills that distinguish between his colleagues ".
Between 1930-1934, he studied at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, whose courses he graduated with excellent results. During this time, on July 5, 1931, he married the teacher Ecaterina Popescu, having five children.
After graduating from theological studies, on September 1, 1934, he was ordained as a priest on behalf of Osica de Jos Parish in Caracal district ( Olt county ), until November 1, 1934, when he was transferred as a parish priest in the village of Buicești. from Olt county.
In 1942 he was seconded to the Romanian Orthodox Mission in Transnistria, preaching the word of the Holy Gospel in Odessa and Sersenița Parish in Rîbnița County. He ended his career as a missionary priest in the spring of 1943, returning to the country where his two children and a sick wife were waiting for him.
On July 19, 1952, Fr. Ilie Lăcătușu was arrested, sent and placed in the MAI Galeșu labor colony, at Canal, until October 1952 when he was employed in the MAI Peninsula labor colony, where he was part of the "famous brigade of priests". A year later, in September 1953, due to his deteriorating health, he was transferred to the prison in Târgu Ocna , where Valeriu Gafencu , nicknamed "the saint of prisons", lived his last days .
His two-year detention was executed "on the basis of the administrative decision of the Ministry of Interior", without having had a single day of conviction.
He was released on April 26, 1954, returning to the Church in Buicești Parish, where he served until July 1, 1959, when he was arrested again and sentenced to five years in prison. In August 1955, the Lăcătușu family lost their fourth child. He was sent to forced labor in the Periprava colony in the Danube Delta, in a formation in which the group of Oltenian priests was included.
Here he met Father Iustin Pârvu . He was released from prison only on May 6, 1964, by MIA Order no. 502/1964, having the qualification of bricklayer, category of Va. At the time of his release, his health was deteriorating.
After his release, he was forced to live in Bolintinu (Titu district), where he was forced to work as a bricklayer. Starting with December 20, 1964, Father Ilie Lăcătușu served in the Gârdești parish (Protoieria Videle) in Teleorman county , and in 1970, he was transferred to Cucuruzu village from Răsuceni commune ( Giurgiu county ), from where, on January 11, 1978, was retired on request.
The difficult years of imprisonment greatly affected his health and for this reason he spent the end of his life in the hospital. On his hospital bed, he demanded that his wife, if she died in 15 years, be buried next to him.
Father Ilie Lăcătușu passed away after a great suffering on July 22, 1983, on a bed of the Panduri Hospital in Bucharest. The body of the father was not embalmed, because the church canons forbid this to the ordained priests and monks. He was buried in the family crypt in the "Assumption" Cemetery in Bucharest.
His exhumation and canonization preparations
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In September 1998, the widow of Father Ilie Lăcătușu died. On the occasion of his burial, the priest's tomb was opened.
On September 29, 1998, 15 years after passing among the righteous, the body of priest Ilie Lăcătușu was found intact and spreading a good scent. The rotten body weighed 7–8 kg, and was found in the conditions of holy relics: incorruptible, fragrant, dry and light, hazel-colored skin, retaining its size and appearance, which, looking at it, does not cause fear, but spiritual joy, giving the impression of a sleeping man.
At the time of the discovery of the incorruptible body of Father Lăcătușu, Mihai Spirache, the father's nephew, touched Ilie Lăcătușu, and for a week, Mihai Spirache's right hand kept the smell of myrrh, specific to holy relics. "I wasn't the only one who smelled that special smell: and those around me noticed it! ... " .
Seeing this, the daughter of Father Ilie Lăcătușu, Maria Sabina Spirache, the only surviving successor at the time, submitted a memorandum on October 5, 1998 to the Archdiocese of Bucharest about this discovery. On July 16, 1999, the Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate stated the following position regarding the canonization file of Father Ilie Lăcătușu:
"The Church has not established terms, neither precise nor approximate, for the verification of holiness. but it is too true that the Church never put any special haste into the acts of canonization, except when the avalanche of popular piety imposed it on her. , as before ".
The father's body was kept secret until February 27, 2000, because the Patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church had not given a blessing to be seen.
The father's descendants asked priests and hierarchs in the country and abroad to perform release services. From May 1, 1999, at the Frasinei Monastery , release services were held for 40 days, after the Holy Mass.
On the occasion of the one-year memorial service (September 29, 1999), in a mysterious atmosphere, His Eminence Theodosius Snagoveanul , vicar-bishop of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, read a hierarchical prayer for the release of any great sins or anathemas that would hinder the body. the priest to rot.
On February 6, 2000, Metropolitan Seraphim Joant of Germany, Central and Northern Europe, officiated a religious service, accompanied by prayers for release. The body remained incorruptible and, as a result, the Patriarchate opened a canonization file to Father Ilie Lăcătușu, giving a blessing to open the crypt that houses his body.
A few months after the discovery of Father Lăcătușu's incorruptible body, on the national television station, the documentary film "Signs", made by the director Cornel Ciomazga, was broadcast, in which the discovery was presented.
The news of finding the relics of Father Ilie Lăcătușu spread throughout Romania, he being honored by the faithful as a saint. The first icon of Saint Elijah the Confessor was painted on the exterior wall of the church of Petru Vodă Monastery, where the abbot was his former prison colleague, Archimandrite Iustin Pârvu . He had spent 17 years in prison and, knowing Father Elijah, was deeply impressed by his spiritual life.
Currently, the relics of Father Ilie Lăcătușu are in the crypt from the "Assumption of the Mother of God" cemetery in the Giulești neighborhood of Bucharest, where he was buried. His incorruptible body was placed in a new glass coffin so that anyone could see it.