Bishop Joseph Gafton

Studia Humanitatis No. I (XIX) / 2025 Bishop Iosif Gafton, a gentle and capable hierarch (1949–1984) Rev. Dr. Laurențiu Rădoi

This article presents the life and work of Bishop Iosif Gafton (1896–1984), from his origins in a priest’s family in Puțeni-Tecuci, through his parish ministry in Rotari and Bucharest, to his long tenure as Archbishop of the Diocese of Râmnic and Argeș, highlighting his administrative, pastoral, homiletic and cultural achievements throughout his 40 years in office.

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.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (I) / 2016 Monastic samizdat Dan Ciachir

Based on diary entries from 1982–1983, the article recounts the author’s visits to the monasteries of Oltenia and Muntenia – Dintr-un Lemn, Surpatele, Hurez, Frăsinei, Cozia, Căldărușani, Dragoslavele – in the company of the vicar bishop Gherasim. Through portraits of monks such as Father Paulin Lecca and Sister Mihaela Ghișoiu, and through references to church samizdat, a picture of Romanian monastic life under the communist regime emerges.

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