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Dumitru Stăniloae

Stăniloae on a 2016 Romanian stamp

Dumitru Stăniloae (Romanian: [duˈmitru stəniˈlo̯aje]; 29 November [O.S. 16 November] 1903 – 4 October 1993), also Anglicized as Demetrius Staniloae, was a Romanian Orthodox Christian priest, theologian and professor. He worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive Romanian translation of the Greek Philokalia, a collection of writings on prayer by the Church Fathers, together with the hieromonk Arsenius Boca, who brought manuscripts from Mount Athos. His book, The Dogmatic Orthodox Theology (1978), made him one of the best-known Christian theologians of the second half of the 20th century. He also produced commentaries on earlier Christian thinkers, such as St Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Maximus the Confessor, and St Athanasius of Alexandria.

He is a controversial figure outside the Orthodox Church view, in his early activity as a journalist he promoted antisemitism and praised totalitarian figures such as Ion Antonescu and Adolf Hitler, before and during World War II.[1][2][3][4] He was recruited by the Securitate under the codename "Văleanu Ion" as an informant following his release from prison in 1963 but he did not cooperate. Accused of being a "mystical element with hostile concepts" he would be removed from the network of informants in 1973.[5]

He is saint of the Romanian Orthodox Church and will be canonized in 2025.[6]

Biography

Dumitru Stăniloae was born on 16 November 1903, in Vlădeni, in what is now Brașov County, Romania. He was the last of five children of Rebeca (mother) and Irimie (father). His mother was a priest's niece. On 10 February 1917 he went to Brașov to study at the Andrew Șaguna High School. He received a fellowship from the Gojdu Foundation in 1918 and a fellowship from the University of Cernăuți in 1922.[7] Disappointed by the quality of the manuals and the teaching methods, he left for the University of Bucharest after one year. He was offered a fellowship by metropolitan bishop Nicolae Bălan at the Metropolitan Center in Sibiu in 1924 during Lent. Stăniloae graduated from the University of Cernăuți in 1927, receiving a fellowship to study theology in Athens. In the fall of 1928 he earned his PhD degree at Cernăuți,[7] with thesis Life and work of Dositheos II of Jerusalem (1641-1707) and his connections with Romanian Principalities. The Metropolitan Center in Sibiu offered him a fellowship in Byzantine studies and Dogmatics. He went to Munich to attend the courses of August Heisenberg (father of physicist Werner Heisenberg), and then went to Berlin, Paris, and Istanbul to study the work of Gregory Palamas.

He married on 4 October 1930, and his wife gave birth to twins in 1931, named Demetrius and Maria. He and his wife had another daughter, Lidia, on 8 October of the following year; and that year he met and befriended ultra-right ideologist Nichifor Crainic.

In January 1934, Stăniloae took over as editor in chief of the Transylvanian bi-weekly church newspaper Telegraful român (The Romanian Telegraph). He would hold the position until May 1945. Under the previous editor in chief, George Proca, Telegraful român had published ambivalent articles about the Jewish minority. Under Stăniloae, the editorial line became aggressively antisemitic. It published eulogies of legionaries Ion Moța and Vasile Marin, far-right politician A. C. Cuza, Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu and even Adolf Hitler. As antisemitic legislation was adopted by the successive Romanian governments Telegraful supported the legislation. Deportations of Roma and Jews were also encouraged. Some editorials (including a 1942 article suggestively titled Au să dispară din Europa, i.e., They will disappear from Europe) go as far as advocating the Final Solution:[8]

"The newspaper Raza from Bessarabia prints the joyful news that the last Jewish convoy from Chişinău is heading towards the Russian steppe, and thus the city got rid of the Jewish cancer. According to the aforementioned newspaper, the departure of the Jews took place with the same swiftness in the other cities of Bessarabia. So it should be – in Bessarabia and all the other provinces of the country."

As a result of his political writing and his notability, a generation of theologians, associated with him or sharing his political views - in particular antisemitism, is known as "Stăniloae Generation".[9]

Stăniloae was ordained a deacon on 8 October 1931 and was ordained priest on 25 September 1932. In June 1936 he became rector of the Theological Academy in Sibiu. In 1940, at the initiative of poet Sandu Tudor, the Rugul aprins (Burning Bush) group was founded. It was composed of priest-monk Ivan Kulighin (confessor of Russian Metropolitan bishop of Rostov, refugee at Cernica Monastery), priest-monk Benedict Ghius, priest-monk Sofian Boghiu, Prof. Alex. Mironescu, poet Vasile Voiculescu, architect Constantin Joja, Father Andrew Scrima and John Marin Sandoveanu. The group gathered regularly at the Cernica and Antim monasteries, maintaining Christian life in Bucharest.

In 1946 he was asked by metropolitan bishop Nicholas Bălan, under pressure from Petru Groza, first Communist Prime Minister of Romania,[10] to resign as rector of the Theological Academy in Sibiu. He remained a professor until 1947, when he was transferred to the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Theology, as the Ascetics and Mystics chair.

Because of political unrest in Romania in 1958, following a split in the Romanian Communist Party, Father Demetrius was arrested by the Securitate on 5 September. While he was in Aiud Prison as a political prisoner, his only surviving child, Lidia, gave birth to his grandchild, Demetrius Horia. Lidia was asked to leave the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Physics because of the arrest of her father.

He was freed from prison in January 1963, and then began work as a clerk at the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and began teaching again in October. He attended conferences in Freiburg and Heidelberg at the invitation of Prof. Paul Miron, with the permission of the State Department of Cults, who wanted to change the image of Romania.[11] While lecturing at Oxford University, he became friends with the theologian Donald Allchin. He retired in 1973.

Grave at Cernica Monastery

He received honorary doctorates from the University of Thessaloniki in 1976, the Saint-Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris in 1981, the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade in 1982, and the University of Bucharest in 1992. He was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas prize of the Faculty of Theology in Tübingen in 1980 and the Cross of St Augustine in Canterbury in 1982.

He died in Bucharest on 5 October 1993, at the age of 90.

Canonization

Father Dumitru Stăniloae was proposed for canonization in 2025 when the Romanian Orthodox Church will celebrate 140 years of autocephaly and 100 years since obtaining the status of a patriarchate.[12] On July 11th and 12th, 2024, the Romanian Orthodox Church officially approved the canonization of Stăniloae along with 15 other Romanian Orthodox saints. His feast day is on October 4th.[6][13]

The news of his canonization was met with great joy among Romanian theologians. Fr. Ștefan Buchiu, a disciple of Stăniloae, expressed his elation, highlighting the significance of the canonization:

We have awaited with joy and hope the moment of the canonization of the most illustrious and representative Romanian theologian, Father Dumitru Stăniloae. With joy, like all who had him as a professor, who were spiritually formed and nourished by his high and profound theology, who took him as a model for theologizing, for knowing and living Orthodox spirituality. With hope, because through this decision of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the creed of Father Professor, transmitted to all his disciples, that theology is a service of the Church, in the Church, and for the Church, is confirmed. The recognition of Father Dumitru’s self-sacrifice in serving the Church through his personalist-communal theology, by bringing closer to us, today’s people, the Holy Fathers and their works, the imperishable Philokalic and liturgical Orthodox values, through the authentic Christian testimony offered in difficult times, is an act of justice and honour, whose amplitude and resonance will have positive consequences in the consciences of theologians, clerics, monks, and all Orthodox believers.[14]

His canonization, along with Ilarion Felea's and Ilie Lăcătuşu's, was criticised by Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania:[15][16][17]

“We question whether elevating to sainthood individuals who, during their lives, shared the values of fascism through words or deeds is consonant with Christian ethics”

The Romanian Orthodox Church promptly replied to criticism, supporting the decision:[18][19]

"Some saints venerated in the Orthodox Church have had, at certain times in their lives, attitudes, and gestures that are hard to understand or even contrary to Christian teachings. However, the Church considers the sinner's change of life and, especially, how they ended their lives, without encouraging (sanctifying) certain deviations that these persons may have had during their lives."

See also

Works

Christogram with Jesus Prayer in Romanian: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. The image appears on Romanian Philokalia book cover.

In English Translation:

References

  1. ^ Clark, Roland. "Nationalism, Ethnotheology and Mysticism in Interwar Romania". Academia.edu. p. 11.
  2. ^ Biliuṭă, Ionuṭ (5 May 2020). "Fascism, Race, and Religion in Interwar Transylvania: The Case of Father Liviu Stan (1910–1973)". Church History. 89 (1): 101–124. doi:10.1017/s0009640720000037. ISSN 0009-6407.
  3. ^ Rev Dr Bordeianu, Radu (27 August 2024). "(St.?) Dumitru Staniloae: A Complex Figure". Public Orthodoxy. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Institutul „Elie Wiesel" condamnă canonizarea părintelui Stăniloaie din cauza trecutului legionar. „Este consonantă cu etica creştină?"". www.digi24.ro (in Romanian). 17 July 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  5. ^ Florian Bichir, PĂRINTELE STĂNILOAE ŞI SECURITATEA: „NU VREAU SĂ FAC RĂU LA NIMENI”, Misiunea, 2016
  6. ^ a b "Noi hotărâri ale Sfântului Sinod al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române – 12 iulie 2024" [New decisions of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church – July 12, 2024] (Press release) (in Romanian). Biroul de Presă al Patriarhiei Române. 12 July 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  7. ^ a b Cernăuți (Romanian) = Чернівці, Chernivtsi (Ukrainian). This article uses the Romanian form for the name of this city in northern Bukovina.
  8. ^ Gabriel Andreescu, Anti-Semitic issues in Orthodox publications, years 1920-1944, Civitas Europica Centralis, 2014
  9. ^ Biliuṭă, Ionuṭ (5 May 2020). "Fascism, Race, and Religion in Interwar Transylvania: The Case of Father Liviu Stan (1910–1973)". Church History. 89 (1): 101–124. doi:10.1017/s0009640720000037. ISSN 0009-6407.
  10. ^ First communist Premier of Romania.
  11. ^ In Communist Romania, a trip to Western countries was not possible without approval from the regime structures.
  12. ^ "Canonization 2025: Bishop of Ploiești reveals first three names". Orthodox Times. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  13. ^ "Holy Synod approves canonization of 16 modern saints". Basilica.ro. 12 July 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  14. ^ "St. Dumitru Stăniloae's canonization is a joy for the theological world: The tradition of the first centuries is resumed". Basilica.ro. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  15. ^ King, Alex (2 August 2024). "Holocaust survivors ask the Orthodox Church to renounce the canonization of three priests accused of legionary ties". B’nai B’rith International. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  16. ^ "Institutul "Elie Wiesel", scandal cu Biserica. Părintele Stăniloae, pe lista neagră". Cotidianul RO (in Romanian). 17 July 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  17. ^ "Priests' canonization triggers disagrement between Romania's Orthodox Church and Holocaust Study Institute". Romania Insider. 18 July 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  18. ^ Ursulean, Andrei (17 July 2024). "Comunicat: Punct de vedere asupra canonizărilor recente ale Sfântului Sinod al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române" [Communiqué: Point of view on the recent canonizations of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church]. Basilica.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  19. ^ "Priests' canonization triggers disagrement between Romania's Orthodox Church and Holocaust Study Institute". Romania Insider. 18 July 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.

Further reading

External links

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