Life and Times of Archbishop Victor Leu
+ Bishop kidnapped by KGB in Vienna, interrogated by
Beria in Lublyanka, and sentenced to death in Bucharest
by Fr. Anthimos BICHIR
Vasile Leu was born in 1903 at Oancea, a village in Galatzi
County. After graduating from the Seminary and Divinity School, he
worked at the Bishopric of Roman, was a priest at St. Spiridon
Church in Iasi, a confessor at Colentina Hospital in Bucharest, and
then a priest at Jianu Parish, also in Bucharest. In 1948, the status
of the Romanian Church began to worsen, with the communist
regime prepared to cut it short. At the request of the Soviet Union,
the Romanian Orthodox Church was ordered directly by Moscow to
bring Romanian parishes abroad under Russian jurisdiction.
Realizing that the screw was beginning to tighten and wanting
to alert the Romanian Diaspora, a group of bishops headed by
Grigorie Leu of Husi and Chesarie of Tomis decided to send some
spokesmen to the Diaspora. Bishop Visarion Puiu was already
abroad, but very ill, and the Romanian bishoprics were sup-
posed to come under Moscow Patriachate jurisdiction set up by
Stalin. So, after a secret meeting, the anti-communist hierarchs
decided to send priests Florian Galdau and Vasile Leu abroad.
On Aug. 21, 1948, Vasile Leu and Florian Galdau left Romania,
jumping from the train in Timisoara near the station Isanova
where they crossed the border to Yugoslavia. After being arrested
and questioned by the Yugoslav secret police, they managed to
escape and arrived in Austria. After a period spent in a refugee
camp, the two priests contacted the Ecumenical Council and the
Allied forces. They were released and took charge of the church in
Salzburg, Austria. With the support of the Ecumenical Council, a big
meeting of all the Romanians from the Diaspora was organized in
Salzburg. That's how the Romanians. Orthodox Autonomous
Bishopric from Western Europe was set up. Vasile Leu was elected
its leader because Visarion Puiu was paralyzed in a health spa in
Switzerland. Atkinson, the spokesman of the Ecumenical Council,
and the three Allied powers immediately recognized the election of
bishop Leu, who received a passport to travel freely. Then some
representatives of the new Bishopric went to Munich to discuss the
ordainment of Vasile Leu with the three exiled Russian bishops.
In december 1949, Vasile Leu was ordain bishop by Metropolitan
Seraphim Lade, Archbishop Stephan and bishop Filip (all from
ROCOR) with the name Victor-Vasile. From then on, the bishop Leu
established many Romanian Orthodox parishes and tried to unify the
Diaspora. He participated in the Conference of Orthodox bishops
from the Diaspora, he paid a call to King Mihai in Switzerland, and
Queen Anne confessed to him. King Mihai, as the monarch of the
exiled Romanians, asks him to meet with Horia Sima and make him
stop the attacks against the Crown. The bishop Visarion Puiu
blessed him and asked to find another residence, because the Swiss
pressed him to convert to Catholicism. In London, all the Romanians
from the BBC, including Ion Ratiu welcomed Bishop Leu, and he
was officially received at the
Foreign Ofiice and by the Archbishop of London. In September
1949, he initiated the first religious broadcast at BBC, speaking
against communism, the persecutions in Romania and against all
the newly elected bishops in his country. Bishop Leu wrote in all the
newspapers of the Diaspora, and had a weekly broadcast at the
BBC. He spoke at American broadcasting stations in Salzburg and
Munich, the British station in Graz, the French station in Innsbruck
and frequently at Radio Paris. His speeches were in Romania and
urged people to fight against communism. He set up dozens of
Romanian parishes and delivered thousands of certificates to
Romanian refugees, helping them immigrate to other countries. It
was not long until a response was heard in Romania. His father,
Bishop Grigorie Leu, was having a terrible time of it. He was removed
from the metropolitan seat and compelled to retire, the reason given
being the disappearance of the Bishopric of Husi. An adamant anti-
communist, Bishop Grigorie had warned Petru Groza- the prime
minister at that time, when the Sovroms were in fashion- that it was
not right to turn even the Patriarchate into a Sovrom-Partiarchate.
Becoming a deadly foe of the communist regime and also of
Moscow, Bishop Vasile Leu was kidnapped on August 16, 1952 in
the British zone of Vienna, after being asleep with an injection. Two
days later, he woke up, shaved and with dyed hair, in a Soviet
army prison. He was delivered to Moscow and imprisoned at
Ljubljanka. He was interrogated for seven months, under the
charge that he was working for the American and British secret
services. Beria himself attended some of the inquisitions. Vasile Leu
was transferred to Bucharest, where by the sentence number 2417/
20.11.1954, he was convicted to death for .the crime of treason. He
refused to be pardoned and deliberately refused to commission any
other person to make such a demand in his name. At the public trial
in the Territorial Court Martial of Bucharest, Archbishop Victor-Vasile
Leu stated: "I realize that you intend to find out about my involvement
in the British intelligence service. I told you and I repeat: I didn.t spy
for anyone. I'm an opponent of this regime in Romania, which turned
the country into a prison. I carried on this activity because the
communist regime in Romania is a strait jacket on the Romanian
people's soul and nature. The only sentence that would honor me
and this court is capital punishment". In a statement he made during
the interrogation, he mentioned: "I consider communism as the main
enemy of the Christianity and that.s why I'm fighting against it,
whatever happens. This fight has become my first concern".
After passing through all the communist prisons of Romania,
Vasile Leu was released in 1964 with note number 5949. His more
than 300-page file from the Securitate (former secret police) as
well as the testimonies of those who knew him in prison show that
Bishop Leu didn.t give up and refused to make any compromises.
Teohar Mihadas, a Romanian writer, declared in his memoirs: "Leu
remained Leu" (lion). He went on hunger strikes countless times,
being a leader even in prison. After his release, he refused to
recognize the Romanian Patriarchate jurisdiction and joined the
traditionalist orthodox Romanians, using the Julian calendar
(nr. True Orthodox Church of Romania. Archbishop Leu refuse to join
with part of Sl`tioara and became a lidere of one jurisdiction of
romanian old-calendarist). He was buried at Cernica Monastery in
1978, rejecting any compromises to his dying day.
Fr. Anthimos BICHIR