The Orthodox Church and the Communist State

Ars Christiana No. I (XV) / 2023 ‘The Miracle’ – a film about a miracle performed by Saint Nicholas that shook the Soviet Union Elena Dulgheru

The film Ciudo/The Miracle (2009), directed by Aleksandr Proșkin from a screenplay by Yuri Arabov, recreates the miracle known as ‘Zoya’s Stiffening’, which took place in 1956 in Kuibyshev, at the height of Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign. This historical epic traces the reactions of various social groups — a journalist, a party propagandist, a priest, Khrushchev himself — to a miracle that defies state-sanctioned scientific atheism, offering a reflection on faith, lies and collective repentance.

Studia Humanitatis No. II (IV) / 2017 The historical resonance of a foundation Dinu Săraru

The article profiles Patriarch Justinian Marina, to whom the Romanian Orthodox Christian calendar for 2017 is dedicated, presenting him as the son of a peasant from Suiești, Oltenia, who, through diplomacy and wisdom, saved the institution of the Church during the communist era, securing recognition for priests as guardians of historical monuments and keeping ecclesiastical structures operational. The author records the consecration, by the Archdiocese of Râmnic, of a church, a monastery and a house-museum built in the patriarch’s native village, as the central event of the commemorative year.

Studia Humanitatis No. II (IV) / 2017 Iosif Gafton of Râmnic Dan Ciachir

Bishop Iosif Gafton of Râmnic and Argeș is remembered through a personal encounter in the summer of 1983, at the age of 87, painting a portrait of a cultured hierarch with a fiery temperament and a remarkable gift for preaching. The article also touches upon the history of Frăsinei Monastery, founded by Saint Calinic of Cernica, the only monastery in Romania which, under the communist regime, maintained a ban on women’s entry, alongside several illustrative episodes relating to breaches of this rule.

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