Gherla, Romania, March 11, 2019
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On Saturday, as the Church celebrated all those saints who have shown forth in asceticism, just on the threshold of Lent, the Romanian Orthodox Church also prayed for all those who lost their lives at the hands of the godless communist regime in the 20th century.
A parastas was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Andrei of Cluj and those serving with him on behalf of all the victims who sacrificed their lives in the name of ancestral freedom and faith following the Liturgy on Saturday at the Gherla Memorial Monastery, reports the Basilica News Agency.
The monastery was also celebrating its patronal feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste. The service was attended by diocesan abbots and abbesses, local and county officials, former political prisoners, and many faithful. The monastery is located on Caramidariei Hill near an anonymous cemetery with the communal graves of the victims of the communist regime.
Archimandrite Gabriel (Burzo), the spiritual father of the Breaza Monastery who was once a political prisoner at Gherla, offered a word on the occasion.
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Photo: Facebook
Among all Romanian gulags, Gherla was among those that saw the most suffering and the most intense suffering. Thousands of people filled the cells and cellars of the prison. The Gherla Memorial Association and the 40 Holy Martyrs Monastery were established by Met. Andrei in their honor. The monastery was founded on October 1, 2017, in the year that the Romanian Church dedicated to the confessors and defenders of Orthodoxy in the communist camps, and presently has a hall with a chapel, a museum, and a trapeza.
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