Items

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  Confiscated photographs belonging to an Old Calendarist monk

  These two photographs were confiscated in 1936 by the police from an Old Calendarist monk, Gheorghe Ștefan Dorneanu, also known as father Grichentie. The first photograph shows Dorneanu dressed in monastic clothes in front of what seems to be a small house or a skete. The left and upper edges of the photograph contain a handwritten text that states: „Gh. Dorneanu (Grichentie) Valea lui Ion jud. Bacău mâna dreaptă a lui Andreescu Eustațiu,” which can be translated as „Gh. Dorneanu (Grichentie) Valea lui Ion, Bacău County, the right hand of Andreescu Eustațiu.” The second photo depicts a group of Old Calendarist believers, and we can see a small hand-drawn cross that was meant to identify Corneanu. Both the small cross and the text were most probably written by the agent that confiscated the photographs from Corneanu’s house when it was searched. In addition to these photos, the agent also confiscated letters that the monk exchanged with numerous other Old Calendarist monks that were being looked for by the police or who have already been imprisoned. One of the monks that frequently wrote to Dorneanu was Eustațiu Andreescu himself. The latter had been arrested in 1936 and sent to Iezeru Monastery from where he wrote letters to Dorneanu in order to encourage him to continue with the construction of the Old Calendarist church in Zănești, Neamț County, and to ask him for help, food, and clothes. In one of the letters, Andreescu disclosed to Dorneanu the place where he had hidden some money, that was also confiscated by the police. Gheorghe Corneanu was accused of conducting illegal church services, as well as spreading false information against the new calendar. He was arrested in 1936 and sent to Cheia Monastery, Prahova County. The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church officially decided in October 1936 that the fate of the Old Calendarist nuns and monks was to be sent to detention at isolated sketes, where they were forced to accept the new calendar. One of the monasteries where Old Calendarist nuns were sent in order to correct their behaviour and, presumably, accept the new calendar, was Vărzărești Monastery, while the monks were sent to Cheia or Iezeru Monastery. Based on archival information such monasteries also existed in other places in the country, however, details related to those cases are either insufficient or unavailable to scholars, for the time being. These photgraphs can be found in the file CNSAS, D 015261. Apart from these photos, the file also contains police reports, lists of names, letters, and statements. For related entries see:
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  Confiscated camera and film roll Moldavian Catholic village, Romania

  These photograph come from a surveillance file opened in 1974 on Sescu Petru, a local amateur historian and folklore collector from the Catholic village of Săbăoani (Szabófalva in Hungarian) who was suspected of "nationalist-chauvenist" activity. Sescu Petru belonged to the local Hungarian minority referred to as Csángós in Hungarian. In August 1974, Sescu Petru was visited in his home village by Laios Pușkaș (Puskás Lajos in Hungarian), a retired history and Latin teacher from Cluj (who we can see seated in the first image). According to the secret police, while they were visiting different people in the village and the neighbouring village of Pildești (Kelgyest) on a borrowed horse and cart and "taking photographs and making recordings on a tape recorder", they were intercepted by the local police who confiscated their equipment and ordered Puskás Lajos to leave Săbăoani immediately. The cassette and film were later returned after the recordings and photographs had been deleted. According to the police report, all of those who had been photographed by Puskás Lajos were identified and later called in to the police station for interrogation. The secret police noted in this case that "nationalist Hungarian" activity, including "the collection and use of distorted ethnographic and folkloric data from the region populated by Csángós with which they demonstrate their Hungarian origin" was increasing and that the "the Moldavian Csángó problem", the "denationalisation and Romanianization" of Moldavian Hungarians, was "being raised frequently by Hungarian citizens of Romania and by foreign interested parties with international organs." In the light of the secret police interpretation of these images, seemingly harmless photographs of local village life and people wearing folk costumes are implicated in an international conspiracy to undermine the image of the Romanian state abroad. For related entries see:
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  Photograph of and religious object belonging to a dead spiritual leader of the Old Calendarist Romanian Orthodox Church

  The two photographs are related to the death of the Old Calendarist Romanian Orthodox Bishop Evloghie Oța and come as a result of extensive ethnographic fieldwork amongst Old Calendarist on-line communities and monasteries in Bucharest and Sibiu. The first picture represents Bishop Evloghie Oța before he was interred by his monastic brothers inside the underground church in Televiziunii street, 13 in February of 1979. From several descriptions given by informants of the Secret Police and in interviews with surviving witnesses, Bishop Evloghie Oța was interred sitting on the Bishop’s throne, dressed in episcopal vestments and holding the Holy Scripture and prayer beads. This picture, which is not found in Oța’s secret police file, fits perfectly the written description in the documents and the interviews with witnesses of the funeral. I first come across the picture in a Facebook group called Imagini de Arhivă ale Bisericii Ortodoxe de Stil Vechi (Archival images of the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church) where it was posted by Sebastian Hriscu who tagged the picture with a description "Pictured found in my grandmother’s archive". Further discussions revealed that the picture circulated amongst Old Calendarist communities throughout the country after the bishop’s death. I later acquired two other scanned copies of the same image from the monks at the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Bucharest (Mănăstirea Adormirea Maicii Domnului a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române de Stil Vechi) where bishop Evloghie Oța was initially buried. In 1983, the Secret Police, in an attempt to destroy the monastic community in Televiziunii street, arrested the monks. The body of the Bishop was exhumed and taken away. The church and the monastic complex have been tore-down, and the believers and monks were forbidden to return to the site. According to interviews with members of the church, the area was levelled and the land was used for agriculture until 1989. The whereabouts of the body of the bishop remain unknown. The second picture represents a string of religious beads displayed in the Hidden Galleries project exhibition (Imagini din galerii secrete: religia clandestină în arhivele poliției secrete/ Rejtett galériák: Az üldözött vallásosság képei a titkosszolgálati levéltárakban) at the Art Museum in Cluj Napoca, Romania. The beads (metanii) belong to Bishop Flavian Bârgăoanu who, in an interview from April 2019 spoke about Bishop Oța beads that had been buried with him but were lost when the bishop was exhumed and his body and everything he was buried with were taken away by the Secret Police. He explained that a few months after the revolution when he and several monastic brothers returned to Televiziunii street he received a visit from a man that had helped with exhumation of bishop Oța's body. He brought with him the beads and told Bishop Flavian that they had been on the body of the bishop and that he had taken them away but so many bad things happened to him afterwards that he is now returning them to the monastery. Bishop Flavian loaned the religious beads to be exhibited in Cluj for the duration of the exhibition. Description of the burial of bishop Evloghie Oța and the details of his interment can be found in the CNSAS file I0161965 vol 1
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  Religious poetry and aphorism from the Romanian Legionary group "the mystics"

  The three images show the personal notebook of Constantin Voicescu (1924-1997) that was confiscated by the Securitate after his second release from prison (1954. It contains 33 aphorisms and 17 religious poems that circulated within the Communist prisons especially among the legionary group labeled by the Communist authorities as "the mystics". The notebook contains four pages of short sentences (aphorisms) written in black crayon about religious experiences, how to achieve personal redemption through self-sacrifice or the imminent victory of Christianity over the armies of Satan (Communism). Most probably, these sentences belonged to the group of legionary prisoners (“the mystics”) who abjured their legionary convictions in favour of an intense commitment to religious life. Under the impact of prison life, these legionaries renounced their political activism in favour of incessant prayer to expiate the sins of the Nation and to convert people to non-violence. Attributed to Ion Ianolide, one of the members of the circle of legionary mystics, most of the sentences are very similar to those voiced by other mystics such legionary commander Traian Trifan (1899-1990), the leader of the group, and Valeriu Gafencu (1921-1952), one of his closest disciples, who Voicescu encountered during their stay in the prison-sanatorium at Târgu-Ocna. The second section comprises of 17 poems written in blue ink belonging to Valeriu Gafencu (Dor, Mi-s ochii triști, Rămas bun, Imnul învierii, În Noaptea Sfântă, Colind, Dar, Chemare, Cântec de leagăn, Frate bun, etc.) and Nichifor Crainic (Laudă, Potirul, Unde sunt cei ce nu mai sunt). In the case of Valeriu Gafencu’s poems, with a few exceptions (Chemare, Cântec de leagăn), all are structured explicitly as Christmas carols or with a chorus that lead us to think that most of these poems circulated in the prisons as songs. The transmission through music of these poems and, therefore, of the legionary religious message to absolve the sins of the Nation through self-sacrifice and passive acceptance of any sufferings, had both a mnemonic and missionary component. Mnemonic, to preserve the legionary message among the inmates and missionaries because one of the key points of the mystics’ program was that of spreading the gospel of legionary non-violence and the primacy of self-sacrifice for Fatherland through prayer and a quasi-monastic life. The images selected were part of a single surveillance file of several members of the group of legionary mystics questioned by Securitate officers in 1958-1959. Variants of these poems can be found in Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities today leading to the conclusion that after 1989 they became widespread inside Orthodox underground communities, and thus a useful method of passing information on the community through musical rather than textual means. The three images come from file CNSAS Penal fond P0000327, vol. 5. The penal file also contains surveillance photographs, intercepted correspondence, notes from informants, religious texts and samizdat.
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  Plans of an underground Old Calendarist Orthodox house church Romania

  The two images are part of an individual file opened by the secret police on Bishop Evloghie Oța of the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church following his release from prison in 1964 in the general Amnesty Decree. The images show house layouts that were drawn by the police during their surveillance operation. Two handwritten documents precede the two drawings of the house layouts. They are from two successive years and originate from the street/ local policemen (sectorist) that supervised the area where Bishop Evloghie Oța established his community and built his church in Televiziunii street. The first document from December 1964 represents the first meeting of the local policeman with the new neighbors that he describes as “people dressed in monastic uniforms” and the second following soon after was a more detailed account by a lieutenant who entered the house to ask for the house documents and encountered four persons, Bishop Evloghie among them, in a “prayer session, in possession of religious books, religious vestments and icons representing church figures”. One can safely assume that first house layout drawing was created to this lieutenant. The document, in which he asked for further instructions, was sent to his superiors and ended up with the Secret Police to later be used during the first destruction of the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church in Televiziunii street. The house layout drawing is thorough. It has an explanatory legend and uses different colors to distinguish between important and less important areas. At number 4 in the legend we find the church room that is adjacent to the bishop’s room. The plan also shows that a policeman lived in a house across the street from the underground house church. Based on this initial layout a slightly different one was made. The second house layout acknowledges Bishop Oța’s ownership of the house. This layout also presents the way, using blue arrows, in which the house can be entered. This layout was used in the later secret police operation when the church was destroyed and the bishop arrested. The images come from file CNSAS fond Informativ, I 161963, Vol. 1. The Informative file includes several other evidence photographs, notes from informants, intercepted letters, secret police reports on the everyday activity of Evloghie Oța and the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church community in Bucharest.
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  Surveillance photos of Greek Catholic bishop Ioan Dragomir Romania

  These three pages of photo collages represent three instances in which Greek Catholic Bishop Ioan Dragomir was captured by secret police surveillance shortly after his release from prison in 1966. They all come from Dragomir’s individual file that extends to ten volumes. The first two collages are of photographs taken in stake out operations by Securitate officers from Maramureș county at the request of the central offices of the secret police. The officers had been instructed to map the network of persons Bishop Dragomir had contact with in his daily activities. These images consist of two types of photographs. The first collage is comprised of photographs where the camera (in the hands of the officer) is mobile and follows Bishop Dragomir after leaving his house. This page of images offers a visual story for the textual report submitted by the officer. One can discover by looking at the photographs frame by frame when the bishop leaves the house, who he meets, who he walks and talks with and the places he visits (the Roman Catholic parish house, the Roman Catholic Church, the market, the shop, the restaurant and the train station). The Bishop was in most cases aware of the surveillance and thus he takes all types of precautions to hide his activity from the secret police officers. When the officer was close enough, dialogue was added to the visual material. The persons that the bishop met were one by one tracked down and also placed under surveillance. They are initially known by aliases in the file and gradually, as the officers learn more about the individuals, the file includes more thorough descriptions of their age, workplace and behaviour. The second type of collage is focused on the intimate daily activities of Bishop Dragomir. His family is tracked in their meetings with the “subject” and his visits to family members are recorded. The pictures in this collage present the bishop with his niece Maria Pop. The third collage, part of volume seven of the individual file captures bishop Dragomir’s funeral. The officers photographed the participants, counted them and then placed them under surveillance also. Bishop Dragomir was the oldest of the underground bishops and his funeral was an event for the Greek Catholic Church and thus the secret police followed it closely and recorded even minute details about the attendance and the funeral ceremony. The three photo collages are part of CNSAS file I3560 volumes 2 and 7. Pages of photograph-collages can be found all throughout the 10 volume file along with reports of surveillance, biographies of the persons that belonged to Bishop Dragomir’s network and descriptions of meeting places.
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  Surveillance of underground Greek Catholic believers Romania

  This two-page collage of photographs represent Greek Catholic believers coming to underground services and meetings with Alexandru Todea the underground Greek Catholic bishop in Reghin, Mureș county in the mid 1960s. The images come from the informative file on Bishop Alexandru Todea that was opened upon his release from prison in 1964 as part of the general Amnesty Decree. The photo collage was sent by the Securitate officers from Mureș region to the central office in Bucharest with the description of the individuals represented in the pictures. The pictures were the result of a longer period of surveillance of the visitors to the house where Todea was residing. They were classified and selected from a larger pool of people, categorised as people who often visited and people who visited him seldomly. The surveillance operation also identified the meeting places, either permanent or provisional (two houses and a place of work). The two-page collage and the documents that explain it help us to understand the work of the Securitate in surveilling underground religious communities. For example, the photographed individuals are identified with aliases. In the description, they are identified with names, the names of parents, place and date of birth, current domicile and how many years the person attended school and sometimes also their employment history appears as well. The focus in the description is also on gender and age. Men were considered more important in the underground religious communities as they owned the houses where meetings and religious services took place. However, one can see from the collage that women made up the overwhelming majority of the visitors. The secret police also track the young men and women that participate since they represented the future of the community and their resilience. The majority of the people of the network were peasants or lived in the countryside according not only to the description but also to the way they are dressed; most women wore headscarves and aprons, the men white trousers and shirt with a dark sleeveless overcoat and a traditional hat. Also, one can see in the pictures that the women carry large shoulder bags and baskets that are traditionally used to take goods to sell at the town market. These images also shows the interest that the secret police had in the way the underground hierarchy of the Greek Catholic Church made their living since they were not employed. They assumed, correctly at least for the early years after their prison release, that peasants brought food to support their clergy. The two-page photo collage is part of CNSAS file I3470, volume 2. The collage is attached at the end of the volume along with the description of the photographs, the short bios of the persons and the description of the meeting places.
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  Novena for the freedom of the Greek Catholic Church Romania

  In the early 1970s, during a raid and house search on Fr. Aurel Leluțiu, the officers found amongst other documents a typed prayer entitled "Novena for the freedom of the Greek Catholic Church". The prayer, however, is not included in Fr Leluțiu’s file. The four images presented here are selections from the same ten-page Novena preserved in Bishop Ioan Dragomir’s secret police individual file. The prayer was considered problematic by the Securitate with mentions of it being made in several other files. This Novena, a nine-day prayer exercise, is directed to the Virgin Mary to intermediate with Jesus on behalf of the Romanian Greek Catholics for the recognition and freedom of their church. It asks the Divinity to “not be late in breaking the chains of the Bishops, Priests and believers that remain faithful to the church.” Like several other memoranda and leaflets produced by the Greek Catholic underground in the late 1960s and 1970s, this prayer can be considered political in that it focused on tangible results in easing the life of the community under the political regime of the time. The prayer asked Virgin Mary to “Soften the hardened hearts of the state leaders […] so they would not fight the [church’s] activity and its resurrection from the underground where persecution has pushed us.” Several tropes that characterize the life of the underground Greek Catholic Church can be noted in this prayer: church of the catacombs, the silent church, chains (breaking the/being in), erasing the memory of the church from the history of the nation. These themes run throughout the underground samizdat literature produced by the Greek Catholic intellectual and clerical elite. The prayer was typed and it circulated extensively in Greek Catholic environments with mention of this prayer ranging from Bucharest to Brașov and Cluj-Napoca. The four pages selected here from a ten-page manuscript, are part of CNSAS file I0003560, volume 3. Mentions about the manuscript are also found in CNSAS file I163305 volume 1. The manuscript is found at the back of the file alongside other samizdat materials.
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  Map of Nazarenes and Inochentists created by the Romanian Siguranța

  This map, which was created by the Romanian interwar secret police, the Siguranța, shows the distribution of two banned religious groups, Nazarenes and Inochentists. The map is undated but appears together with other materials from 1938. From the second half of 1938, the new Royal Dictatorship headed by King Carol pursued harsher policies towards religious sects and the Siguranța made a concerted effort to gather accurate data on sects in order to be able to plan operations and determine whether its actions were producing results. The data for maps such as this one was collected by local gendarme posts, which functioned as the eye and ears of the regime in the countryside. Local gendarme commanders regularly reported data upwards including the names and addresses of preachers, the locations of places of worship, numbers of adherents of the various banned groups in local settlements and numbers of reverts to Orthodoxy (this data was supplied to them by local Orthodox priests who issued certificates as proof of membership of the Orthodox Church). Based on this data, the secret police created maps, charts and tables showing the nationwide statistics and distribution of illegal sects. This map comes from a Documentary file CNSAS, D015288, on Inochentism 1934-1943. This file also contains a number of press cuttings from the 1930s on Inochentism plus tables of statistics on produced by the Gendarmerie. For related entries see:
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  Postcards of Romanian Greek Catholic martyr bishops

  These images are of postcards that circulated in the 1970s of the Greek Catholic bishops that refused the forced unification of their church with the Romanian Orthodox Church. The bishops were all arrested, imprisoned and either died in prison or in forced domicile. The two images show the Greek Catholic Bishops Ioan Suciu (1953), Valeriu Traian Frențiu (1952), Vasile Aftenie (1950), Ioan Bălan (1959), Alexandru Rusu (1963), Tit Liviu Chinezu (1955), and Cardinal Iuliu Hossu (1970). Their photos were then collaged together and artistically framed around an image of the Blaj Greek Catholic Cathedral. Because Cardinal Iuliu Hossu appears in the medallion with the date of his death, we can safely date the postcards in the 1970s. The first image also has a photo of Bishop Ioan Dragomir dressed in his cassock with cincture and with an episcopal cross. These visual clues also serves to narrow the date in which the postcards were produced to before 1985 when bishop Ioan Dragomir died since the file in which these images are found does not give any explanations of the postcard or the picture. We can only assume that both bishop Dragomir’s staged photo and the postcard of the martyr bishops were similarly used as a means to inform the community, through these visual messages, that the Greek Catholic bishops had died for their faith in the communist prisons and yet the Church continues to live on in the underground. The second image of the same postcard of the martyr bishops comes from the Informative File of Greek Catholic Bishop Ioan Ploscaru. The document contains the postcard, a picture of all the Greek Catholic bishops taken before 1948 and the envelope in which these pictures were presumably sent. The document represents the secret police practice of making photographic evidence of problematic correspondence. After it was copied, the letter was probably posted on to the addressee. In this case, the letter was sent to Florea Dosoftei at Curtea de Argeș. What made this letter suspicious was probably the fact that it was correspondence between the Greek Catholic bishop Ioan Ploscariu and Fr Dosoftei Florea, a monk in the Orthodox Church. They were both imprisoned during the communist regime. The images selected were part of two different surveillance files of two underground Greek Catholic bishops. Variants of these postcards can be found in Greek Catholic communities today leading to the conclusion that they were widespread in the period and fairly accessible inside the underground community, and thus a useful method of passing information on the community through visual rather than textual means. These postcards are photographed and attached to two different multiple volumes informative files that space out from 1964 to the late 1980s. The files are preserved in the archive as CNSAS I3560 vol 7 and I262256 vol 4. They also contain surveillance images, intercepted correspondence, notes from informants, religious texts and samizdat.
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  Amnesty International postcards sent to imprisoned Greek Catholic bishop in Romania

  The four images show Amnesty International postcards sent to Dej prison to the Greek Catholic Bishop Ioan Dragomir in 1964. They are selected from a total of 15 winter holiday postcards sent from various places in United Kingdom and Australia to Dej prison. Most of them have standardized typed messages on the Amnesty International cards. The first picture shows the inside of a card and back of an envelope. The card is a standard pre-written Amnesty International card to which the sender added: “I hope you will soon be free. God be with you.” The sender was the secretary of the University College in Cardiff. Most of the cards come with only the pre-written standardized messages and are signed and addressed. This is among the few that include some lines from the sender. The second and third images show the front of two cards. The forth image shows the inside of a card that sparked the special interest of the secret police. The senders’ message reads: “Dear bishop Dragomir, greetings. May the future bring greater light, Yours Faithfully Fred Dykstiva”. However, it was not the hand-written message the Securitate officers were concerned about but the pre-written Amnesty International message at the bottom of the card. “This card is being sent to men and women in various countries held in prison for their beliefs, to show that those who are free to speak and worship as they wish remember those who are not.” The 15 cards arrived at Dej prison in November 1964 several months after Bishop Ioan Dragomir had been released from prison after an amnesty decree that released most of the political prisoners of the regime. However, what triggered the Securitate involvement was the fact that Bishop Dragomir had never been a prisoner of the Dej prison (this was a prison that catered for prisoners arrested and charged for spying for a Western country). Bishop Dragomir was supposed to have been sent to Dej prison since his imprisonment had originally been on charges of espionage for Vatican. However, his past as a member of the Peasant Party ensured instead that he was sent to Galați prison and later to Brăila where he spent the last days of his imprisonment until July 1964. While most of the political prisoners in Dej prison received Amnesty International postcards it was the Ioan Dragomir batch that raised the suspicions of the secret police. The officers raised questions about how the senders had found out that this was the correct address for political prisoners. This mistake in address seemed to indicate that international institutions were privy to the thinking behind the types of prisoners being sent to the various prisons. Moreover, the officers were interested in whether the correspondence between the bishop and these senders continued after his release from prison. Unlike his correspondence after his release that was copied and read by the secret police, these postcards never reached bishop Dragomir. Bishop Dragomir was one of the clandestine Greek Catholic hierarchy that was created by Nuncio Patrick O’Hara following the imprisonment of the bishops of the Greek Catholic Church in 1948 for refusing to sign and acknowledge the forced unification with the Orthodox Church. He was imprisoned for 20 years in 1952 for activities against the social order. He was released in 1964 and returned to his home where he spiritually administered the clandestine communities of Greek Catholics as their bishop. The four images are part of the informative file on Ioan Dragomir CNSAS I3560 volume 2. The informative file has 10 volumes and includes several other evidence photographs, notes from informants, intercepted correspondence, secret police reports on the everyday activity of Ioan Dragomir and the Greek Catholic underground community. For related entries see:
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  Letters renouncing membership of the Romanian Orthodox Church

  The four images are of letters from members of the Romanian Orthodox Church community expressing their desire to leave the church. The almost identical, handwritten, signed and dated (spring 1973) letters were sent to the Romanian Orthodox parish in Lugoj. The second and third letters were written by the same person on behalf of different family members. The authors inform the Orthodox Church in Lugoj that they are leaving the Orthodox Church. The final letter, which was written in the name of an entire family, states that if by mistake they were registered as children with the Orthodox Church they respectfully ask to be removed from the church records and with this act they declare themselves Roman Catholic believers. According to the explanations given to the Ministry for Religious Denominations by the Orthodox Archbishop of Banat, within whose jurisdiction Lugoj was situated, the authors of the letters were former Greek Catholic believers that joined the Orthodox Church in 1948. The Archbishops communication goes on to identify the authors as older and helpless members of the former Greek Catholic Church, one of which was a bedridden former Greek Catholic priest. These letters, which were required according to the Law for the General State of the Religious Denominations, chapter 5, articles 38 and 39 that outlines the official process of leaving one denomination and joining another, were considered part of a larger campaign by the underground Greek Catholic Church aimed at the legalisation of the church by the communist regime. The letters demonstrate that the Greek Catholic community was still active in the 1970s and that its members were openly leaving the Orthodox Church in protest at the 1948 forced unification. Moreover, especially the forth letter shows that after the forceful unification between the Orthodox and the Greek Catholic Church the believers of the latter were, in some cases, registered as Orthodox without their knowledge or agreement. The letters ended up at the secret police via the Ministry for Religious Denominations where they were received together with the Orthodox Archbishop’s letter requesting the ministry’s help in discovering who instigated this action and solutions for the problems it raised. The matter was investigated by the secret police and deemed not dangerous. The officers leading the investigation reported that the authors of the letters were old and the sole reason they had drafted them was so they could prepare for their death. The Roman Catholic Church could not or would not officiate at the funerals of nominally registered Orthodox believers and thus the authors of the letters had to officially leave the Orthodox Church even if, at least in some cases, they had never officially joined it. The letters are part of a larger file on the Catholic problem in Romania CNSAS D69 vol 9. The documentary file regarding this matter contains a letter between the Orthodox Archbishop and the Ministry for Religious Denominations, communication between the Ministry and the secret police, the originals and several copies of the letters and a document with the results of the secret police investigation.
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  Images of clandestine Greek Catholic services in Transylvania

  The four images illustrate the religious life of a Greek Catholic community in 1970s Transylvania as recorded by the community in photographs and how it is described by the Securitate on the basis of their surveillance and investigation of the community. These materials represent a rare instance where it has been possible to relate secret police descriptions to photographic materials that can still be found in the community. The first three images come from the private collection of Mihai and Ana Rus and form part of a group of photos related to their regular attendance at religious services in Bishop Todea’s house in Reghin where the bishop had also held their wedding and administered the Baptism and the Confirmation of their children. The Rus family could not pinpoint the exact date when they received the photos nor when they were taken. The fourth image is the first page of a Securitate document dated 23rd January 1971 that describes the situation of the clandestine Greek Catholic community in Reghin, Mureș county, a town near to the Rus family's home village, and the planned measures to be taken against the Greek Catholic community in the area. The first picture from the Rus family collection is a staged photograph of Greek Catholic Bishop Alexandru Todea in the period after his return from prison (1964) when he lived in the town of Reghin in Mureș county. The picture shows Todea in bishop's vestments in a staged, still photograph. His hands are clasped in prayer and is smiling softly towards the camera. The picture was probably taken at his request and served as reminder for the underground community that he ministered spiritually that he was alive and performing his pastoral duties. Moreover, it showed that his church, which had been dismembered by the communist regime in 1948, was still functioning. Descriptions of similar photographic devotional materials appear in Todea’s Securitate Informative file. Secret police agents and informers talk about a distribution network of pictures of Alexandru Todea within the Greek Catholic community. The documents also mention that a monetary value was placed on the photos of 3 lei. However this information was not verified in the interviews the Securitate carried out. The second picture was taken during The Great Entrance stage of the liturgy that was conducted in Alexandru Todea’s house. The picture shows an unidentified Roman Catholic priest dressed in Roman Catholic liturgical vestments holding the chalice (and therefore heading the procession) and a Greek Catholic priest (probably Fr. Augustin Giurgiu) holding the disk (ceremonial plate) with the unconsecrated Holy Body of Christ (the Prosphora). The picture shows that in this particular Byzantine service, the Roman Catholic priest holding the chalice leads the liturgy. The picture also shows a well-attended service with several kneeling women and men. The third picture was taken during a religious service in Bishop Todea’s house in Reghin. It is a snapshot of a detail of the back of the priest dressed in vestments during the Gospel reading. There is a clear image of three church goers, one kneeling holding a candle, probably the acolyte or alter server (or făt in Romanian). The fourth image is the first page of the Securitate's description of the religious life we see depicted in the Rus family's personal collection. At the bottom of the page the document states that Bishop Alexandru Todea (secret police code name Toma Aurel) performed religious services all over the town as well as in his house. Wedding ceremonies also took place in his house. The photographic images come from the private photo collection of Mihai and Ana Rus from Băița village, Mureș county, and were shown to the author during ethnographic fieldwork in August, 2018. The family also described religious life and practices of the community during the period when the photographs were taken. The family photo collection contains several photographs that are described in the secret police files on Bishop Alexandru Todea. The image of the Securitate document is part of the file CNSAS I3470. The Informative file on Bishop Alexandru Todea contains several descriptions of the altar in his house, the religious services performed there and surveillance pictures of people visiting the bishop. For related entries see:
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  Secret police network scheme of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Romania

  This network scheme comes from a documentary file on Jehovah’s Witnesses in the former administrative region of Cluj. Titled as “Organisation Scheme of the organisation “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in Cluj Region, it shows the structure of the group with names, ranks and connections of each of the functionaries (indicated by circles). The blue box at the top stands for the national leaders, while the rectangular boxes at the bottom represent the six territorial units in the region with the number of their subunits and members. The scheme also informs the viewer of the progress the authorities had made in their measures against the group: arrested “elements” are indicated with red, while those still free are coloured with blue. The scheme is an attachment to an interim report written in 1955 and visualises the results of an ongoing "informative–operative" operation conducted by the Securitate’s Cluj regional directorate. The operation started in 1953, two years after the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cluj region (35 people) were arrested and convicted. The aim of the operation was to identify the new leaders and functionaries of the reorganised regional units, to map their connections within and beyond the regional structure, and to gather information about their activities and whereabouts. To further this goal, the Securitate employed several informants to work on the group and relied on information gathered during interrogations of members arrested during the operation (in 1951 or after 1953). As the scheme aims to show, Jehovah’s Witnesses as an organisation had a hierarchical structure. The basic units were the local congregation, each having its leader called servant (this emic term was used for all leaders, and as the scheme shows, it was also adopted by the Securitate). On a territorial basis congregations formed circuits (there were 6 of them in the Cluj region with altogether 146 congregations) with circuit servants responsible for coordinating the work of congregations, supplying them with religious materials and acting as mediators between them and the regional servant. The regional servant in turn was responsible for coordinating the work of circuit leaders: he collected reports, money or other types of donations, distributed teaching materials and mediated between the circuits and the national leaders. His work was helped by evangelisers called pioneers who took an active part in proselytising and organising new congregations; they were mainly young, unmarried and devoted men already living illegally for having refused military service. Communication between the levels was carried out with the help of couriers who transported messages, reports, reading materials and donations. Interaction within the group was highly secretive: most servants and pioneers used cover names even with other group members, all reports were coded and couriers met with the leaders in crowded public places and used prearranged signs to get in touch with one another. Authorities found the highly organised structure of the group and the discretion with which they carried out their interactions suspicious and considered this evidence of the group’s conspiratorial nature. Before 1990, apart from two short periods between 1933–1937 and 1945–1949, Jehovah’s Witnesses did not enjoy a legal status in Romania. They suffered intense persecution at the hands of inter-war democratic governments and the wartime and post-war totalitarian regimes. The main reasons given by the authorities for their harassment were their proselytising activity, the lack of transparency in their organisation, their refusal to perform military service or to participate in elections and other civic duties, their ties to their American headquarters, and their heralding of the end of the regime and the onset of a theocratic kingdom. Throughout the communist period, Jehovah’s Witnesses were closely surveilled by the Securitate with many being imprisoned or sent to labour camps. In spite of the repressive environment, however, their number grew from 15000 in 1949 to 35000 in 1990. These images come from file CNSAS D 014428. Beside the network scheme it contains a 17-page report and several crime scene or evidence photographs of various hidden materials (a typewriter, a loudspeaker fake IDs, religious brochures, coded reports). For further readings on Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Romanian state see: Pintilescu, Corneliu – Fătu-Tutoveanu, Andrada, 2011, Jehova’s Witnesses in Post-communist Romania:
the Relationship Between the Religious Minority and the State (1989-2010). Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, vol. 10, issue 30 (Winter): 102–126. For related entries see:
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  Crime scene photographs from a file on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Romania

  These crime scene photographs were selected from a documentary file on Jehovah’s Witnesses in the former administrative unit called Cluj region. The pictures were taken during various house searches conducted by the secret police in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses or people related to them. The photos in the first image show a "normal sized piece of firewood" with its inside carved out and the reports of the Huedin circuit (territorial unit within the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation) from 1951–1954 that were hidden inside it. It was found in the home of the already arrested Huedin circuit servant (leader of the circuit responsible for coordinating congregation work within his unit). The first photo on the second image shows a loudspeaker and accessories. The loudspeaker was found in the well of the arrested assistant of the Huedin circuit servant, while other parts of the equipment were hidden piece by piece underneath the pigsty. According to the report, the loudspeaker was used during meetings. In the second photo in this image we can see a coded report from the same circuit hidden amongst unused tiles. The third image is a statement about refusing military service. It was written by one of the pioneers (evangelisers actively taking part in the life of the congregations) who was also arrested by the time of the report. According to the secret police, the statement was distributed as a sample amongst young male members. The top picture on the fourth image portrays the arrested leader of the Abrud circuit seated beside a glass jar containing coded reports. The picture intends to capture the moment when the jar was dug up from its concealment, near the roots of a tree. The photo below offers a close-up of the material contained in the jar. The photos follow the common standards of crime scene photography of Eastern European secret services. These photos were often “re-enactments”, a common method to illustrate the crime and incriminate its perpetrator; the fourth image is an excellent example of this. All pictures were supplemented by detailed captions providing basic information about the items shown and the place they were found. The report included in the file emphasised that Jehovah’s Witnesses were exceptionally resourceful when it came to concealing “forbidden” materials, so much so that the services needed tips from their informers to find them. The photos in this file were used to support accusations (participating in a conspiratory and hostile organisation, producing and disseminating forbidden publications, encouraging young men to refuse military service, holding clandestine meetings etc.) against arrested members and helped authorities to convict them. Up to 1990, apart from two short periods between 1933–1937 and 1945–1949, Jehovah’s Witnesses did not enjoy legal recognition in Romania. They suffered intense persecution at the hands of interwar democratic governments as well as the wartime and post-war totalitarian regimes. The main reasons given for their repression were their proselytising activity, the lack of transparency in their organisation, their refusal to perform military service or participate in elections and other civic duties, their ties to their American headquarters, and their heralding of the end of regime and the onset of a theocratic kingdom. Throughout communism, Jehovah’s Witnesses were closely surveilled by the Securitate with many being imprisoned or sent to labour camps. In spite of the repressive environment, however, their number grew from 15000 in 1949 to 35000 in 1990. These images come from file CNSAS D 014428. Beside these images it contains several other crime scene or evidence photographs of various hidden materials (a typewriter, fake IDs, religious brochures, coded reports), a 17-page report and the network scheme of the groups active in the region. For further readings on Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Romanian state see: Pintilescu, Corneliu – Fătu-Tutoveanu, Andrada, 2011, Jehova’s Witnesses in Post-communist Romania:
the Relationship Between the Religious Minority and the State (1989-2010). Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, vol. 10, issue 30 (Winter): 102–126. For related entries see:
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  Romanian secret police investigative methods Operation Leaflet

  The four images of documents selected here come from a documentary file on the “Catholic problem” and represent clues and evidence used by the Secret Police in order to identify the culprit who wrote a leaflet that requested that at a certain hour on the feast of the Virgin’s Ascension all Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and friends of the Church should go into the former Greek Catholic churches and say a prayer so that God would grant Nicolae Ceaușescu wisdom to legalize the Greek Catholic Church. The four documents come from volume 6, 10 and 39 of the file and represent forensic sketches used by the Secret Police in identifying the culprit who wrote the leaflet, two typed pages with typewriter alphabet and text, picture of fingerprints on photos from suspected individuals. All these were part of Securitate’s arsenal of methods in capturing the person that initiated the original leaflet. Operațiunea Apelul (Operation Leaflet) was the code name the Securitate gave to the search for the Greek Catholic person or group that wrote a leaflet/ series of leaflets signed by the Committee for the Salvation of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church in 1977. The leaflets were mailed to hundreds of addresses and spread to numerous catholic communities, apartments, churches quickly papering the whole country. Having the underground bishops and most of the more problematic voices of the Greek Catholic dissenters under surveillance the secret police was taken by surprise by this action especially because they had no idea who could have signed the leaflet and orchestrated this operation. From that moment onwards a huge sweep up operation began. The Securitate interrogated all their informants and all the underground bishops and priests. The secret police reactivated all their former informants and created new ones just so they could find who was responsible for the leaflet. For a long while they could not find anything, since nobody knew or was willing to talk about who the Committee for the Salvation of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was. Thus, the Securitate officers changed tactics. They knew the post offices where the original letters were mailed from and had the original leaflet typed. They interrogated the post office employees and together with criminalists and a sketch artist they drew up several portrete robot (forensic sketches) that presumably represented the people who posted the letters and leaflets. They started to call in Greek Catholics, reactivating several databases of underground believers and clergy, to check their typewriter fonts so they would match the text the secret police had with the typewriter it was written on. This whole process extended over seven years with numerous resources put into the operation. Several arrests were made before they narrowed the search down to Fr. Mihai Pop, a Greek Catholic priest from Cluj. The images come from file CNSAS D69 (volume 6, 10, 39). The file has over 100 volumes on the catholic problem in Romania and documents and photographs on Operation Leaflet appear throughout the file. Along with these images there are interrogation reports, personal files, surveillance reports, surveillance images, confiscated leaflets and propaganda materials.
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  Confiscated stamp of a Hungarian Calvinist Church Choir in Romania

  The first image comes from a photo album compiled by the Securitate on the Hungarian Calvinist Church Choir in the town of Ocna Sibiului (Vízakna). It shows a photocopy of a confiscated document, the last page of the choir’s president’s celebratory speech performed at the choir’s 80th anniversary. As with many of the group’s documents, it bears the official stamp of the choir. The second photo shows a document with a hand drawn replica of this stamp. This document, which is the last page of a handwritten copy of the choir’s Rules and Regulations from 1974 (its original was written in 1956), is still kept in the local Calvinist church. The stamp, along with a large part of the choir’s documentation was taken during a secret police raid in 1973 when authorities accused the choir of nurturing nationalist-irredentist ideals behind the façade of their church functions and of being hostile to the socialist Romanian state. It was claimed that the choir’s real aim was to maintain the national identity of the local Hungarian minority and to instil Hungarianess in the next generation. Although the choir was allowed to operate after the raid, it was “robbed of its past” since none of the confiscated items were returned. Some attempts were made to compensate for this loss: for example, several documents were recreated by the choir’s former secretary who, in lieu of the missing stamp, created a hand-drawn replica when necessary. This practice serves as an example of how groups that had been pursued by the secret police tried to cope with the loss of their belongings: in this case the loss of the choir's recorded history and an important symbol of its legitimacy, its stamp. The Ocna Sibiului Calvinist Church Choir was founded in 1889. From 1907 it officially operated as an association with a president, secretary, accountant and had its own banner and stamp. Its main task was to sing at the funerals of congregation members and at church services but was also central to organising community life for local Hungarians. The choir still functions today. The first image comes from file CNSAS D 015847. The second was taken during ethnographic fieldwork in 2018. For related entries see:
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  Secret police photo album on a Hungarian Calvinist Church Choir Romania

  These images come from a photo album compiled by the Securitate on the Hungarian Calvinist Church Choir in the town of Ocna Sibiului (Vízakna), Transylvania. The first image shows the title page of the album with a short introduction to the choir and its supposed activity. In the second image, we can see photos which were most probably taken by the secret police displaying the decorated walls of the choir’s meeting place. The third image includes shots taken in the usual fashion of crime scene photographs of items confiscated from the choir during a secret police raid. The fourth image shows close-ups of confiscated musical scores with Hungarian themes, the national anthem of Hungary amongst them. In 1973, the choir was accused of nurturing nationalist-irredentist ideals behind the façade of their church choir and of being hostile to the socialist Romanian state. The album, which itself is a documentary file containing photos of confiscated documents and images owned by the group or taken by the secret police, was carefully designed to support this claim. It starts with a five and a half page report on the history and activity of the choir stating that the choir’s real aim was to maintain the national identity of the local Hungarian minority and to instil Hungarianess in the next generation. The reporting officer made efforts to portray the choir as a conspiratory group not independent of other equally dubious Hungarian organisations. He claimed that it had negative influence on the discipline of the local community. The album then continues with group photographs of choir members, exterior and interior photos of the group’s meeting room focusing on its Hungarian patriotic decoration, crime scene photos of confiscated materials, selected operative documentation of the choir (minutes of meetings, financial reports, membership lists etc.), its correspondence with past members or other organisations, musical scores and finally, several pages taken from confiscated notebooks written by the choir's former secretary, an elderly man who was an amateur local historian and an avid preserver of memories of the local Hungarian past. The photos are often amended with explanatory captions that give translations of the documents or point to the nationalistic nature of the choir; for example, under the 1971 group photo the officer writes: “the colour of the (previously Hungarian national) flag is now black, the symbol of mourning, and the Hungarian tricolour is carried secretly in the hearts of the members.” From the report we know that after the raid some leading members were interrogated by the secret police and were kept under surveillance afterwards. The choir was allowed to continue with its church related duties but local party leaders were ordered to “pay more attention to the proper education of local Hungarians.” Ethnographic fieldwork revealed that the Securitate’s attack on the choir is still part of the community’s memory and oral history. As several members recalled, the operation on the choir had been drawn up by an ethnic Hungarian officer who befriended the choir’s former secretary. Playing on his Hungarian roots he claimed to be interested in Hungarian historical matters and cajoled the old man to loan his historical writings to him. A couple of days later the Securitate launched a raid on the choir’s meeting place and confiscated most of its documentation and its official stamp. These items, as well as the notebooks taken from the ex-secretary were never returned. Loss of these materials meant the loss of a large part of the choir’s past. Fieldwork with surviving members of the choir has revealed that the community had made efforts to compensate for this loss: some of the notebooks had been rewritten or recreated since. Accusing religious groups with ethnic minority backgrounds of being nationalist or irredentist was common in socialist Romania. As this case shows it was not always religion or religious practice that the authorities were after but the supposed political affiliations of these groups. The Ocna Sibiului Calvinist Church Choir was founded in 1889. From 1907 it officially operated as an association with a president, secretary, accountant and had its own banner and stamp. Its main task was to sing at the funerals of congregation members and at church services, but was also central to community life for local Hungarians. The choir still functions today. The images come from file CNSAS D 015847. For related entries see:
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  Small Icon belonging to Romanian Old Calendarist believer

  These images depicts a small icon that was confiscated by the secret police from an Old Calendarist believer. The first image shows the front of the icon, which portrays what seems to be the fight between good and evil, the holy trinity, angels, saints, numerous religious symbols, as well as two priests that are praying for the soul of a dying man. The second image shows the back of the small icon which has a short text. The first part of the text is indecipherable, but the second part states: “[...] Pray this prayer and feel that fear comes into your blood and body. Look at the dead man and how his soul is going up, towards the heavens.” It also mentions the name of the person to whom the icon belonged, which was “Păun”. According to the police reports included in the file, Păun was a “mystical person, a fanatic for his faith which was the old style,” referring to his adherence to the pre-reform Julian Calendar. He sent numerous requests to the state authorities, asking for the reopening of the Old Calendarist church in Păunești, Vrancea county. The church was closed in 1971, at which point Păun began sending letters in which he pleaded for the legalization of the Old Calendarist church. Apart from this small icon, the file contains a few papers on which he wrote Psalms and prayers. It is not certain if these items were confiscated from him by the police or if he attached them to the letters that he sent to the authorities. However, the reports state that he was threatened by the police on numerous occasions due to his insistent letters in which he would sometimes include “mystical materials.” This image can be found in the file CNSAS, I 1075010, vol. 4. Apart from this photo, the files also contains police reports, lists of names, three more photos and other items that belonged to Păun. For related entries see:
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  Confiscated religious material smuggled into Romania

  These photos were taken in 1984 and depict religious materials that were confiscated from three West German citizens who were trying to smuggle them into Romania. The first photo depicts the inside of the trailer that the tourists were driving. The material was carefully hidden inside it so that it would not be easily discovered by the Customs Officers. Based on the report that was attached to the photos, the materials were found in a specially designed place in the ceiling of the trailer. The second and third photos depict all the materials that were confiscated from the German citizens. Among them we can see many Bibles, New Testaments, brochures, calendars, cassettes and songbooks. The report mentions that they were bought from a printing house in Stuttgart and were destined for so-called Neo-protestant churches (in Romania smaller Evangelical or new churches are referred to using this term). According to the report present in the file, the three people belonging to the Evangelical Church tried to enter Romania in July 1984. The books and brochures that they were smuggling were supposed to reach the Evangelical Christian churches in Romania, as they had a lack of such materials. The officers rejected this assertion as fake propaganda that was being spread in Western countries. As usually happened in such cases, the materials were confiscated along with the list of names that they were supposed to be delivered to. The tourists were fined and not allowed to return to the country. Based on the information contained in the report, it seems that this case posed some problems for the Customs Officers and for the authorities. It made them ask for more thorough investigations in such cases in order to better understand the channels used by Western countries in order to smuggle these materials. The photos can be found in the file CNSAS, D 00003, vol. 1. Apart from these three photos, there is one other photo referring to this particular case, 25 photos concerning two similar cases, as well as other police reports and instructive materials for the officers on how to act in these types of situations. For related entries see:
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  Photographs of confiscated religious materials smuggled into Romania

  These photos were taken in 1985 and show the search by Customs Officers of a car belonging to three tourists who were trying to cross the border into Romania. This was a normal procedure and any attempt to smuggle religious materials into the country was considered dangerous and an attack against the regime. The first image depicts the three tourists together with all the religious material that they were presumably hiding in their car. Among the books we can see a few Bibles, brochures, calendars, some cassettes and songbooks. These materials were confiscated along with the list of names of the people that they were supposed to be delivered to. The second image shows the officers as they were uncovering the religious materials that were hidden in the car. These type of images are recurrent in evidence files and they are used to prove the guilt of the persons trying to smuggle religious or other forbidden materials in the country. Similar to the second image, the third and the forth photos depict the officers pulling religious books out from their hiding places. The photos were taken at the precise moment (or were staged to appear as such) in an attempt to emphasize the dramatic character of the situation and to further incriminate the smugglers. The books were hidden in various hard-to-reach places inside the car such as the engine area, as can be seen in the forth image. According to the report present in the file, the three people tried to enter Romania in September 1985 but there is no mentions of where they came from. However, based on the registration plate of their car, as depicted in some of the photos, it is safe to assume that they were West German tourists from Karlsruhe, presumably Christians belonging to a protestant or Evangelical church, that were trying to smuggle religious materials inside the country. The tourists were fined and denied access to the country. The photos can be found in the file CNSAS, D 00003, vol. 1. Apart from these four photos, there are seven other photos referring to this particular case, 18 photos concerning two similar cases, as well as other police reports and instructive materials for the officers on how to act in these type of situations. For related entries see:
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  Photo of a funeral of two Old Calendarist believers Romania

  This photograph was taken in 1934 or 1935 in the village of Toporăști in the county of Vaslui. It depicts the funeral of two victims of the Romanian Gendarmerie following an attack on their church in an attempt to arrest the community's priest. The first image shows a few Old Calendarist believers surrounding the coffins of two people, a man and a woman. They seem to have two icons placed on their chests and we can see that three of the children present in the photo have their hands on the coffins, implying that this is their parents' funeral. There is a short note on the right edge of the photo that states: “Shot by the Gendarmes”, suggesting that they were killed during a direct confrontation with the Gendarmes. The second image shows the back of the photo which has a short text describing the event in the photo. The text states as follows: “From the massacre in Toporăști- Vaslui. Mother and father shot by the Gendarmes of the former regime for this belief,” referring to the Old Calendarist belief. It is unclear to whom the photo belonged or how it ended up in the file. The events that happened in Toporăști in 1934 are similar to the events in the village of Cucova, and mark the beginning of a series of confrontations between the Old Calendarists and the Gendarmes. Described as massacres, these attacks were meant to dissipate the Old Calendarist communities in the region. Even though it is not very clear what caused the incident in Toporăști, it seems that the Gendarmes surrounded the church in an attempt to arrest the Old Calendarist priest present there. Based on some archival documents and other sources, 12 Old Calendarists and 4 Gendarmes were wounded and 3 Old Calendarists were killed during the confrontation. In 1936, two years after this event, police reports state that the Stilist movement was no longer active in the region. This image can be found in the file CNSAS, I 1075010, vol. 4. Apart from this photo, the file also contains police reports, lists of names, two more photos and other confiscated items from an Old Calendarist believer. For related entries see:
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  Brochure combating Old Calendarist ideas Romania

  These four images are part of a brochure written in or around 1936 by Grigore Spiru, a well known Romanian journalist of the interwar period. The brochure, whose main characters are Glicherie Tănase and his alleged mistress, Maria Gârleanu, was meant to combat Old Calendarist ideas and to portray the Stilists (referring to "old style"), as Old Calendarists were referred to, in a negative manner. The first picture depicts the cover of the brochure, entitled “The Rasputin of Moldova. Glicherie, the holy devil and the Stilist bishop”, as well as a caricature of Glicherie. The comparison with the famous Rasputin was not coincidental and it mainly referred to Glicherie’s power of attracting large crowds of peasants, many of whom were women. The text also calls him “the black monk” and it makes references to the activities that were supposedly happening in various Old Calendarist churches, such as orgies, fake miracles and the use of real blood during the Eucharist. The second picture can be found on the inside of the brochure and it depicts a caricature of Glicherie, as well as the title “The childhood and…monasticism of Glicherie”. The caricature itself, as well as the term bishop written between quotation marks, are meant to mock Glicherie’s status amongst the Old Calendarists. The text goes on to describe Glicherie’s childhood in a very different manner from the way that it is recorded by the Old Calendarist church, portraying him as a charlatan from a very young age and motivated in his choice of the monastic path by financial reasons. The third picture can also be found on the inside of the brochure and it depicts a caricature of Maria Gârleanu. She was often described as the mistress of Glicherie Tănase, as well as his accomplice, especially in Glicherie’s attempts to stage various miracles in order to impress the peasants. In the brochure, Spiru depicts Maria Gârleanu as an adventurous woman, fascinated by various monastic figures, especially by Rasputin, whom Glicherie is said to have resembled. The forth picture depicts a caricature of Glicherie holding a bottle of alcohol, pointing to the Old Calendarists’ alleged immoral behaviour. Spiru goes on to describe how the Old Calendarist priests received gifts from naïve believers whilst spending their time drinking alcohol and luring young women. The brochure, which appeared in 1936, was meant to combat the Old Calendarist ideas and was part of a narrative that was encouraged and propagated by the Orthodox Church. These images, along with the brochure, can be found in the file CNSAS, D 013408, vol. 1. Apart from this brochure, it contains police reports, lists of names and newspaper articles that refer to the so-called Stilist rebellions from 1935- 1936. For further readings see: ”Isprăvile lui Glicherie episcopul stiliștilor” in Universul, No. 257, September 17, 1936. For related entries see:
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  Confiscated group photograph of Inochentists Romania

  This confiscated photograph was included in a personal file of an Inochentist leader alongside several others collated by the Romanian Securitate. The image shows the male leader flanked by two women from the community. Such group and community photographs feature heavily amongst the corpus of confiscated images in the secret police archives in Romania as for the secret police they were a convenient means of tracing networks and personal relationships of the religious underground. The case file does not state when the images were confiscated but from an Informer Report that appears elsewhere in the personal file we learn that in February 1965 the members of a “sisterhood” of Inochentist women were being investigated by the Securitate because of their links to the leader in the photograph, a “Saint” referred to by his flock as the prophet “Elisha” with the initials C.A. The informer, “Dan Gheorghe” (not his real name), who had either infiltrated the group or been recruited from within it, after a conversation with the “sisters” reported the following: “She [one of the leaders of the group] told me that the militia man [who lived next door to her] got hold of a photograph of her with C. A. and M. and that if she is asked by the militia if she knows C. A., that she won’t say no because the militia have the photograph, but if she is asked about other “brothers” in the group she will say nothing even if they cut her into pieces. I asked her how the photograph reached the militia and she told me that she was photographed together with those I mentioned above, then she sent the photograph to C. A. through the post and in this way the militia had made a copy of the photograph” (CNSAS I 237454, vol. 3, 57.). This short extract from the Informers Report tells us a lot about the biography of this particular photograph revealing how the image was produced by members of the community, how it was shared, how it was intercepted by the secret police and finally how it was transformed into incriminating evidence that could be used to identify members of the underground community. This example serves to illustrate the text/image relationship as the Informers Report engages the photograph as evidence of the meeting with C.A. The image, however, is in stark contrast to the text that describes it; the text incriminates and implicates the image in a conspiratorial narrative, whereas the intention of the producers of the image was to commemorate a significant act of devotion to the group’s spiritual leader, which they preserved despite the risk that the photograph posed to the community. Three copies of a photograph, together with a number of others, appear compiled on a single page of the secret police file and are described as “photographs of the elements [meaning the individuals under surveillance] from the operation of group no. 70.” For related entries see:
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  Images of Old Calendarist underground church in Bucharest

  The 4 images are taken from a secret police personal file and were used as evidence of an Old Calendarist underground monastery in Bucharest. The community was led by the Old Calendarist bishop Evloghie Oța. According to the communist state legal framework, the Old Calendarist Orthodox Church was an illegal entity. These pictures documented a sweep operation of the secret police that ended in the destruction of the underground church and the arrest of the bishop. We cannot date the pictures precisely because the community kept rebuilding the underground chapel and the secret police destroyed it each time from 1965 until 1983. The community dated from 1964 when their bishop was released from prison and was held together under his charismatic leadership. During the 26 years of the community existence under communism their number increased gradually. They had several brothers in the monastery and a parish that consisted of regular church goers and people that came from time to time from various places across Romania. The bishop visited and maintained a correspondence with the geographically distant members of his flock. This form of parish is typical for an Old Calendarist community in the communist period but not typical for a regular Romanian Orthodox Church parish. For this reason the numbers of believers cannot be accurately assessed. The file contains several other pictures (14 in total) and two maps of the house and the underground chapel. The pictures follow standard crime scene photographic principles, illustrating the exterior, means of entry to the underground chapel as well as the main incriminating evidence and close up details of particular elements that elucidate the crime. They also show the methods by which the building was transformed from a house into an illegal underground chapel including photos linking the bishop and parishioners to the site. The pictures selected here, illustrate common tropes of illegal religious activity: the route of entry via a ladder to the underground chapel; the ritual space; and the means by which the community financed itself. The third picture reveals the altar table and icons surrounding it together with religious service books, candles and items of from episcopal paraphernalia. Note particularly the crosier and the mitre, both elements that indicate the rank of the officiant that is not present in the picture. The forth picture in this entry shows the money next to several diptychs (several lists of names for whom religious service has to be held are observable in the picture). A stole and a censer can also be seen in this picture, religious objects and garments effectively linking the money to the religious service provided. Although the secret police implied that the community was hiding underground the Old Calendarist subterranean religious spaces and/ or underground chapels were not necessarily used for hiding in. There is an Orthodox Christian monastic tradition of locating sites of worship in cave and subterranean spaces. For related entries see:
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  Incriminating photographs on Old Calendarist underground community Bucharest

  The two photographs are part of an evidence file of an underground Old Calendarist community. They are successive images of a typewriter and the typewriter with its owner taken by the Securitate for an evidence file constructed against the underground group. The first photograph has the typewriter placed near a Kalimavkion (monastic head gear in the Orthodox Church) which visually links the object with the owner. They are placed in the dormitory on the bed and what appears to be some literature is visible next to the typewriter. The second picture presents the owner of the typewriter with the open typewriter. The room is more visible in this image and on the bed several leaflets and books are spread to reinforce the link between the person, the typewriter and the use to which it was put. The person, identified in the file as Evloghie Oța was dressed in a cassock and has a bandage on his left hand which may indicate he may have been subject to physical violence at an earlier stage. It was common practice for the secret police to bring suspects back to the (crime) scene in order to produce stage photographs as incriminating evidence. In interviews with Old Calendarist Orthodox monks that knew bishop Evloghie it appears that his hand was broken at the time and this was not an outcome of his imprisonment. Evloghie Oța is described in the secret police file as a Stilist Bishop. The typewriter along with other equipment used to disseminate information and proselytize (i.e. tape recorder, magnetophone, video recorder, video player) was among the clearest evidence to demonstrate illegal creation, production and reproduction of materials. These types of images are recurrent in evidence files. The Romanian legislation during the communist period incorporated rules for typewriter ownership. Every typewriter was registered with the state administration and a page with the typewriter’s letters and signs was kept in a police file so the user could easily be identified. The images come from file CNSAS fond Informativ, I 161963, Vol. 1. The Informative file includes several other evidence photographs, notes from informants, intercepted letters, secret police reports on the everyday activity of Evloghie Oța and the Old Calendarist community in Bucharest. For related entries see:
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  Confiscated Tudorist songbook Bucharest

  This songbook is located in a police file from 1938 and it appears to have been confiscated from two Tudorist believers, both of whom were women, who were distributing brochures, calendars and other religious literature to various people on the street. The images uploaded are the front cover and the contents page of a 30 pages long book. The first image depicts the cover of the book which has the name “Tudor Popescu”, the founder of the religious group and its title, Christian Songs (Cântări creștinești). The number “47” refers to the total number of songs that are contained in the songbook. The printing press and its location are mentioned at the bottom of the page. The second image depicts the content of the book, i.e. the list of the songs which are included in the book, in alphabetical order. These songs were collected, translated and some of them composed by Dumitru Cornilescu in circa 1921. He was a former Orthodox priest, biblical scholar and translator and religious reformer. He was a close friend of Tudor Popescu. This was the first songbook produced by the Tudorist community and remained the standard song collection for some years until. According to the biography of Dumitru Cornilescu, these songs were first learnt by heart by the members of the community and only later was he able to collect them together and to publish the songbook. The Tudorists appeared in the 1920s’ and formed as a religious group around the figure of Tudor/Teodor Popescu, a former Orthodox priest. The initial name of the community was the Scriptural Christians but they were soon known as the Tudorists, after the name of their founder. For a very long time the group was outlawed, but in 1939, in order to gain officail ecognition, they were compelled to unify with the Brethren (this was the common term used for creștini după evanghelie/ Evangelical Christians) as it was believed that they shared doctrinal similarities. However, they continued to have a distinct identity inside this larger group and are nowadays known as a second branch of the Brethren. The Tudorists rejected icons and important aspects of Orthodox tradition and for this reason they were seen as a threat for both the Orthodox Church and the state. As part of the Hidden Galleries research project, this songbook was later shown to a member of the community who explained its value to the community as this songbook is extremely rare. This songbook can be found in the file CNSAS, I 259046. The file is one of the informative files on Tudor Popescu compiled by the Securitate from Siguranța files. It contains more brochures that were confiscated by the police, some personal letters of Tudor Popescu, as well as declarations and arrest warrants of Tudorist members that were caught by the police distributing religious literature. For further references see: Alexandru Măianu, ”Viața și lucrarea lui Dumitru Cornilescu”, București, 1995. For related entries see:
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  Mugshot of Old Calendarist monk Glicherie Tănase Romania

  These mugshots were confiscated in 1952 by the Securitate from Onofrei V. Onofrei, an Old Calendarist monk, who was also the secretary of the Old Calendarist community. The mugshots of Glicherie Tănase, one of the most important Old Calendarist leaders, were taken in 1936, when he was arrested after the first confrontations between the Old Calendarists and the state authorities in Neamț county. He was arrested again, in 1952, and numerous attempts were made by members of the group to set him free. According to the penal file of Onofrei V. Onofrei, described as one of the youngest members of the group and also as a mystical member, he obtained these mugshots from a militiaman, who was working in Neamț county, and managed to make copies of them at a photostudio in the same county. Even though this is a police photograph, it was distributed as a devotional material. Onofrei made 45 copies of the mugshots in an attempt to encourage the community to remember their imprisoned spiritual leader . He went on to distribute 25 of these images to the monks of Slătioara Monastery, the largest Old Calendarist monastery, and to other Old Calendarist members. In this file the police report that they managed to confiscate four copies, two of which were included in this file. However, other copies of the same image can be found in his second penal file, P 0068482. Onofrei's actions were considered dangerous by the state and seen as an attempt to agitate the Old Calendarists against the regime. He was arrested and measures were taken in order for the rest of the copies to be confiscated from all the individuals he had managed to distribute them to. These images can be found in the file CNSAS, P 0022247, which is one of the penal files of Onofrei V. Onofrei. Copies of the same photos can be found in his second penal file, P 0068482. Apart from these two images, the file contains other pieces of evidence against Onofrei V. Onofrei, mostly in the form of declarations taken from people that were approached by him and even from the photographer that helped him replicate the mugshots. For related entries see:
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  Destruction of Romanian Old Calendarist Church in Cucova

  These photographs were taken in 1935, in the village of Cucova, in the county of Putna (nowadays Bacău), as evidence of the rebellions and problems caused by the Old Calendarists in the region. The term "Stilists" was also used by the state and the press in order to label them, referring to the fact that they were following the "old style" dates and calendar. The first image depicts some gendarmes, a few members of civil authorities and mainly women members of the Old Calendarist community, all of whom were arrested. The photograph was taken in front of the Old Calendarist wooden church, which was also surrounded by a wooden fence. The number of women depicted in this photograph supports the contemporary view that women played an important role in the Old Calendarist communities. The same assertion is supported by both secret police reports and numerous newspaper articles that accuse Old Calendarist women of attempting to lure and trick people into becoming members of the community. The second photograph offers a clear picture of the wooden church and the surrounding fence. The window frames of the church appear to have been removed, which could indicate the intention of the authorities to completely destroy it but keep the valuable material. According to the narratives of the Old Calendarists, the church was destroyed soon after this event. The third photo depicts the interior of the church and is of great value due to the fact that it allows us to see how objects and icons were originally displayed. It was taken from the inside of the church and captures the intrusive gaze of the three gendarmes (shown in the centre of the photo) into the sacred space. Large icons appear to have been removed from the wall and there are other numerous small icons. The random character of the small lithograph objects suggests that they were donated by members of the community. The events at Cucova, that were labelled by the authorities as rebellions, were part of a general religious dissent that began with the introduction of the calendar reform in Romania. It gave birth to a movement in the Eastern Romanian provinces of Moldova and Bessarabia which became known as Old Calendarists or Stilists, after the Romanian term “old style,” referring to their opposition towards the acceptance of the new Gregorian calendar. The context in which these photographs were taken is a very important one, especially for the history of the Old Calendarist church. The incidents that took place in Cucova, in 1935, are described as a massacre in various narratives of the Old Calendarists, while the archival documents portray the event in a different light, making the Old Calendarists appear as rebels and troublemakers. Even though it is not very clear what caused the incident, the fact that Cucova became a point of attraction for Old Calendarists from different places might have been a reason for the authorities’ intervention. Police reports mention that the Old Calendarist believers hid in their improvised church and soon became violent, forcing the Gendarmerie to use firearms. Based on some archival documents and other sources, five people were killed, 28 wounded and 40 arrested. In 1936, one year after this event, police reports state that the Stilist movement was no longer active in the region. Even though the wooden church in Cucova was destroyed in 1935, an Old Calendarist monastery was later rebuilt on the approximately same place, where it still stands today. These images can be found in the file CNSAS, D 015305. Apart from these 3 images, it contains 6 more photographs depicting what happened in Cucova, as well as more documents regarding the problems generated by the changing of the calendar, especially among the peasants. For further readings see: Andreea PETRUESCU, Mișcarea stilistă în Basarabia, 1935-1936. Cauze și soluții. Perspective locale (Stylist movement in Bessarabia, 1935-1936. Causes and solutions. Local perspectives), in Caietele CNSAS, Anul IX, nr. 1-2 (17-18)/2016, Editura CNSAS, Bucureşti, 2017. ”Anchetarea rebeliunii stiliste din Piatra Neamț” in Dimineața, No. 10683, September 19,1936, ”Femeile au un rol important în mișcarea stilistă” in Capitala, No.191, September 24, 1936. ”Încăierare cu stiliștii într-o comună din județul Putna. Doi morți și șapte răniți” in Universul, May 29, 1935. For related entries see:
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  Confiscated photograph of Old Calendarist nuns Romania

  This photograph was confiscated in 1941 by the Siguranța, the Romanian secret police prior to Communism. It depicts four Old Calendarist nuns, also referred to as Stilists. A short handwritten text on the reverse states that it was taken on September 1st, 1939. The nuns are dressed in standard monastic clothes, their heads are covered and their black tunics entirely cover their bodies. In their hands, they hold “metaniere”, Eastern Orthodox prayer ropes. The “metaniera” is an important part of monastic dress and is used during prayer to aid concentration. The composition of the photograph and the screen with painted architectural features tells us that it was taken in a photo studio. Because the dress of Old Calendarist nuns was not distinguishable from those of Orthodox nuns from legally recognised monasteries, the women were able to travel freely without drawing undue attention of the authorities. The photograph was confiscated by the police from two nuns, Steliana Geancu and Anica Măzărel. They were discovered hiding in a hut, in the Pralea Woods, Bacău county. It was added to their penal file but it is unclear to which one of them it originally belonged. A short text on the reverse of the photograph suggests that it was used as a personal memento: “Aminitire, această fotografie este amia, Singlitichia, scoasă la 1 septembrie 1939. Aici este Ma. Chirichoia și Ma. Melania și Sara Iliana și M Singliticia Păcătoasa,” translated as “Memory, This photo is mine, Singlitichia, developed on September 1st 1939. Here are M. Chirichoia, M. Melania and Sara Iliana and M. Singlitichia the Sinner.” Both Steliana Geancu and Anica Măzărel were arrested and tried for Stilist propaganda in 1941. Old Calendarists emerged in 1924 after the introduction of the new calendar by the Orthodox Church. They were a group of Orthodox believers who rejected the newly adopted Gregorian calendar and went on to organize their religious life according to the “old style”, hence the name Stilists. They were condemned by both the Orthodox Church and state authorities which collaborated in identifying and prosecuting them. Often on the basis of local information provided by the Orthodox Church, the state deployed its security agencies, the police, the Gendarmerie and the Siguranța, to prevent Old Calendarist gatherings, arrest their leaders and disrupt the life of the community. In a number of cases, the intervention by the security services resulted in violence and casualties. State security archival sources report that the “Stilist phenomenon” had faded by 1940 and indeed, leading up to 1936, the most important leaders of the group had been arrested. However, the community continued to exist underground. Some began meeting in attics, cellars, or other secluded places, while others fled in the woods, where they hid in caves and huts. In this period the term “vagabond priests and nuns” was used to refer to those Old Calendarist members who wandered from community to community to avoid arrest. The photo image is found in the file CNSAS, P 096704. Together with the photo included in this entry, the police also confiscated Steliana Geancu’s and Anica Măzărel’s personal letters, icons and other objects. Of these, the letters, a handwritten prayer and a list of personal sins are included in the penal file. For further readings see: ”Primejdia stilismului în Basarabia și Moldova” in Universul, No. 52, February 22, 1936. For related entries see: