Evanghelicii din România în anii comunismului târziu. Breviar biografic: Dănuţ Mănăstireanu
The Evangelicals in Romania During the Later Years of The Communist Regime. Biographical Breviary: Dănuţ Mănăstireanu

Summary/Abstract: Based on this interview, I have tried to present a biography of a member of the Evangelical community in Iaşi, Romania: Dănuţ Mănăstireanu. As a Baptist, he was affected by the social marginalization measures enforced by the atheist state, mainly at the end of high school, when he was not able to study Sociology as he intended, and in the 70’s, when he came in direct conflict with the Securitate. A number of four surveyance files were open on his name, beginning with the time of his military period until the collapse of the communist regime. Using the code names “The Guitar Player” and “The Ideologist” the secret police followed Dănuţ Mănăstireanu because of his relations with the Reformed pastor Ferenc Visky, the leader of the Bethanist movement in Transylvania, with the Baptist pastor Iosif Ţon, the promoter of the protest actions of the Romanian Evangelicals, with Pavel Nicolescu, the founder of ALRC (The Romanian Christian Committee for the Defence of Religious and Conscience Freedom), the most radical form of contest of the atheist regime. Although suffocated by the interdictions imposed by Department of Religious Affairs, and also by the compromises made by the official leaders of the Evangelicals, these communities managed to find the force to raise against the aggressive atheist policy of the communist state, due to the active resistance of some believers, lay and clergy alike. His relations with foreigners were also held against my “subject”. These, became a good protection for people like him, especially when the respective foreign believers expressed concern for the fate of their fellow believers who, theoretically, had all the liberties granted by the Romanian Constitution, but, in fact, were facing systematic persecution. The close relations he had with the dissenting Evangelical leaders of the 70’s and his personal experiences with the Securitate make the testimony of Dănuţ Mănăstireanu an important source for those interested in the life of Evangelical communities in Romania the last decades of communism.

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