MODEL FOR EASTERN EUROPE IN CRISES

 

 

Friends of ours were recently in Romania (a country I would have liked to visit, especially to bird) which caused me to find this saint.

BL. VLADIMIR GHIKA was a Romanian diplomat and essayist who, after his conversion from Romanian Orthodoxy became a priest of the Catholic Church. He was a member of the princely Ghica family, which ruled Moldavia and Wallachia at various times from the 17th to the 19th century. He died in prison in May 1954 after his arrest by the Communist regime of Romania.

Vladimir Ghika was born on Christmas Day of 1873 in Constantinople. His father was Ioan Grigore Ghica, diplomat, minister plenipotentiary in Turkey. His mother, Alexandrina, was born Moret de Blaremberg into a Flemish-Russian family. He had four brothers and a sister. He was the grandson of the last Prince sovereign of Moldavia, Prince Gregory V Ghika, who ruled from 1849 to 1856. 

 In 1878, in order to give a good education to the children, the family moved to Toulouse, France. There, they frequented the Protestant community, because the Orthodox church was not represented in the area. Vladimir received his Degree in Law in 1895, after which he attended the Paris Faculty of Political Science. He also studied Medicine, Botany, Art, Literature, Philosophy, and History. He returned to Romania due to an attack of angina pectoris, continuing his studies in Romania.

The future blessed was an alumnus of the College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum, in Rome. In 1898, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology. At the Angelicum, he completed a licentiate in Philosophy and a Doctorate in Theology in 1905. Soon converting to the Catholic faith.

Vladimir wanted to become a priest or monk, but Pius X, a family friend, advised him to give up the idea, at least for a while, and to dedicate himself to secular apostolate instead. He became one of the pioneers of the lay apostolate.

After returning to Romania, he dedicated himself to works of charity and opened the first free clinic in Bucharest called Mariae Bethlehem. He also set the foundation for a great hospital and sanatorium named after Vincent de Paul, founded the first free hospital in Romania and the first ambulance, thereby becoming founder of the first Catholic charity work in Romania.

 He was dedicated to patient care while participating in health services in the Balkan War in 1913, without the fear of cholera in Zimnicea. He was also in charge of diplomatic missions among the Avezzano earthquake victims.

On 7 October 1923, Vladimir was ordained a priest in Paris by Cardinal Dubois, Archbishop of the city. He served as a priest in France until 1939. Shortly after  he was ordained, the Holy See authorized him to celebrate the Byzantine Rite. Prince Ghika thereby became the first bi-ritual Romanian priest.

On 13 May 1931, the Pope appointed Father Vladimir to be an Apostolic Protonotary, but he was reluctant to accept it. He worked worldwide, (speaking 22 languages)  including Bucharest, Rome, Paris, Congo,Tokyo, Sydney, and Buenos Aires, among others. Later, in jest, Pope Pius XI called him an "apostolic vagabond". 

He traveled to dangerous war zones to care for the wounded and refugees as well as victims of cholera epidemics. During World War I, the Vatican gave him diplomatic assignments on top of his humanitarian work. It is said that Pope Pius XI gave him an assignment to go to Russia to convert Lenin, but when he arrived, Lenin had just died. 

Most of these global missions were financed through personal wealth.

On 3 August 1939 he returned to Romania, where he was caught in the Second World War. He refused to leave Romania at that time so that he could be with the poor and sick, and he did so even when the Allies began bombing Bucharest, where he lived.

As World War II ended, the Soviet Union positioned itself to take over exhausted neighbors such as Romania. With writing on the wall that the new communist leadership being imposed would not be friendly to property owners or priests, Vladimir Ghika’s family urged him to leave alongside others fleeing communist oppression.

The priest’s response was typically sacrificial: “If God wants me here, then here I remain.”  

He even passed up a spot on the king’s own train (Romania was a constitutional monarchy), which left the country for good in December 1947, when the communists forced King Michael to abdicate or die.

Between 1948 and 1952, every Catholic bishop and auxiliary in Romania was arrested and jailed. The new regime set out to create a new Catholic hierarchy, appointed by the political power and no longer loyal to the Holy See. The project failed, as each Catholic cleric chose punishment over capitulation.

Bl. Vladimir was arrested on 18 November 1952, because of his support for the Catholic Church in communion with Rome and his opposition to the schismatic church that the regime was creating. He was charged for "high treason" and threatened, beaten, tortured and processed. Eventually, he was imprisoned at Jilava Prison on 16 May. Throughout his internment until his death on May 16, 1954, he was a medical and spiritual doctor to the inmates, especially the young.

Thirty direct witnesses testified to the Blessed’s holiness while in jail, where various sociopathic torture techniques were employed to get him to confess to being a traitor for communicating with the Vatican.

He  was starved. He was beaten. Guards ordered dogs to attack him. He was tortured with electric shocks and strangulation. A firing squad was assembled to shoot him, but it was all a game, as they used blanks; it was a sick stunt to make him confess. He didn’t. Eventually, he lost his eyesight and hearing as a result of brutality. He died in 1954 due to the treatment to which he was subjected.

On 27 March 2013, Pope Francis declared Vladimir to be a martyr. He was beatified on 31 August 2013. 

Archbishop Ioan Robu of Bucharest said at his beatification:

“His limitless charity extended to all people, of all faiths, everywhere. His capacity for forgiveness was infinite too. Most inspiring to me was his ability to see God in all things.” 

A true model for the Church in eastern Europe today as it faces so many challanges, sitting next to a country at war.