People of Faith | 1

Dănuț Mănăstireanu, General Editor

PeoPle of faithPeoPle of Justice

Adoramus Publishers

Iași, Romania – 2010

People of Faith | 3

People of Faith | 5

Dănuț Mănăstireanu, General Editor

PeoPle of faithPeoPle of Justice

Adoramus Publishers

Iași, Romania – 2010

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a RomânieiPeople of Faith: People of Justice / Marcelin Blaj, Marcel Bulai, Adina Petric, ... ; general ed.: Dănuţ Mănăstireanu; translators: Stuart and Dorothy Elford. - Iași: Adoramus, 2010 ISBN 978-973-87908-4-1

I. Blaj, MarcelinII. Bulai, MarcelIII. Petric, AdinaII. Mănăstireanu, Dănuţ (coord.)IV. Elford, Stuart (trad.)V. Elford, Dorothy (trad.)

28(100):929

Authors: Blaj, Marcel Bulai,Adina Petric, Narcis Stupcanu,Cristian Zaharia and Monica Zaharia

Theological editors: Cornel Cadar,Constantin Naclad,Danut Manastireanu

Literary editor: Ovidiu Bișog

Illustrations: Cristi Bandi

Translators: Stuart and Dorothy Elford

Editor of English version: Rebecca Russell

Typesetting and cover: Daniel Condurachi

Project administrator: Monica Zaharia

© 2010 World Vision International. All rights reserved.Adoramus PublishersIași, Romaniawww.adoramus.ro

‘St. Nicholas Project’ was initiated by Sharon Payt, Director of Advocacy, Middle East & Eastern Europe Region of World Vision International (http://meero.worldvision.org) and was financed by this organisation.

People of Faith | 9

‘At the LAst Judgment, I wILL not be Asked whether I sAtIsfActorILy prActIced AscetIcIsm, or how mAny genufLectIons I hAve mAde before the dIvIne ALtAr. I wILL be Asked whether I fed the hungry, cLothed the nAked, vIsIted the sIck And the prIsoner In hIs JAIL. thAt Is ALL thAt wILL be Asked’.

st. mArIA skobtsovA

contents

prefAce 6

st. LAwrence († 258) 8

st. AnAstAsIA († 304) 10

st. gregory the ILLumInAtor (250–325) 12

st. nIchoLAs (3rd–4th cent.) 14

st. bAsIL the greAt (330 – 379) 16

st. mArtIn of tours (316 - 397) 18

st. styLIAnos of pAphLAgonIA (4th cent.) 20

st. John the ALmsgIver (550-619) 22

st. frAncIs of AssIsI (1182 – 1226) 24

bL. Jeremy of vALLAchIA (1556 – 1625) 26

nIkoLAus von ZInZendorf (1700 – 1760) 28

wILLIAm wILberforce (1759 -1833) 30

st. gIovAnnI bosco (1815 – 1888) 32

st. dAmIen de veuster (1840 – 1889) 34

george müLLer (1805- 1898) 36

Contents | 5

st. ILIA the rIghteous (1837- 1907) 38

st. John of kronstAdt (1829 - 1908) 40

JeAn henrI dunAnt (1828 – 1910) 42

cAtherIne And wILLIAm booth (1829-1890) (1829-1912) 44

evA von tIeLe-wInckLer (1866 – 1930) 46

bL. ZeffIrIno JImeneZ mALA (1861 – 1936) 48

st. dImItrI kLepInIn (1904 – 1944) 50

st. mArIA skobtsovA (1891- 1945) 52

dIetrIch bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) 54

fr. dumItru sAndu-mAteI (1913 – 1951) 56

mArtIn Luther kIng, Jr. (1929 – 1968) 58

oscAr romero (1917 – 1980) 60

bL. mAIcA tereZA of cALcuttA (1910 – 1997) 62

rIchArd wurmbrAnd (1909 – 2001) 64

desmond tutu (born 1931) 66

Afterword 68

Preface

All the great stories of every

culture begin with a brave adventure

undertaken by someone who dared

to transform their own life, and

thereby transform the lives of others

around them.

In the Christian faith, through

the ages, stories have been handed

from generation to generation of

women and men, young and old, who

have dared to live a great adventure

through the power of the Holy Spirit,

for the glory of God, and for the

benefit of all mankind, for whom

Christ came to earth. Their stories

raise the hopes of all of us that we,

too, can live a more meaningful life

– that by daring to give our life away,

we may find it anew, more significant

and dramatic than anyone around us

could have ever imagined!

This collection you are reading

resulted from a World Vision

project to present people of God

committed to justice, mercy, and

service to mankind, from a variety

of faith traditions through Christian

history – men and women, Catholics,

Orthodox and Protestants, who by

their lives and works illustrated the

words uttered by the Saviour in the

synagogue of Nazareth: ‘The Spirit of

the Lord is upon me, as he anointed

me to bring good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim release to

the captives and sight to the blind, to

free the oppressed and to proclaim

the year of the Lord’ (Luke 4:18-19,

quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2a).

Called the ‘St. Nicholas Project’,

we chose as our model of charity and

justice the famous Bishop Nicholas

of Myra, who lived in the 3rd-4th

century.

Throughout the entire history of

Christianity – the patristic period, the

Middle Ages and our own modern

times – holy women and men of

God showed their spiritual inner

life by active engagement for social

justice and in defence of the poor

and oppressed. Some were sanctified

(declared ‘saints’) or beatified

(declared ‘blessed’), according to their

traditions.

These texts address especially

teenagers, who are the same age

as many of these heroic men and

Preface | 7

women when they determined to live

bigger lives for God than perhaps had

been previously expected of them.

We hope that young people in every

culture will be motivated to explore

the social implications of faith in God.

For, as Maria Skobtsova, a modern

promoter of social justice, rightly

said from a Christian perspective,

‘at the Last Judgment, I will not

be asked whether I satisfactorily

practiced asceticism, or how many

genuflections I have made before the

divine altar. I will be asked whether I

fed the hungry, clothed the naked,

visited the sick and the prisoner in his

jail. That is all that will be asked.’

The St. Nicholas Project was

initiated by Sharon Payt, World Vision

International’s Advocacy Director for

the Middle East and Eastern Europe,

and was developed and administrated

by Monica Zaharia. Truly this is an

ecumenical project, part of efforts by

World Vision to serve the Church by

inspiring more true imitators of Jesus,

who likewise inspired all these co-

labourers’ work on behalf of the poor

and marginalised. Of the six authors

of these brief biographies, two are

Catholics (Marcelin Blaj and Maricel

Bulai), two are Orthodox (Narcis

Stupcanu and Monica Zaharia), and

two are Protestant (Adina Petric and

Cristian Zaharia). Three theological

editors (the Catholic priest Fr. Cornel

Cadar, the Orthodox priest Fr.

Constantin Naclad, and the Protestant

theologian Dr. Danut Manastireanu)

reviewed the texts describing the

personalities coming from their

respective ecclesiastical traditions.

Literary editing was provided by

Ovidiu Bisog, a Catholic believer, to

harmonise style and language. The

illustrations were made by Cristi

Bandi, a very talented Orthodox

illustrator. Typography and design

were done by Daniel Condurachi, an

Evangelical believer.

May God grant us all opportunities

to move beyond religious theory and

ritual towards ways of living modelled

in these pages.

Dănuț Mănăstireanu

st. lawrence († 258)

the sAInt who gAve the goods of the church to the poor

Lawrence is a third-century saint

who opposed injustice by helping

the poor and destitute. He was

martyred by Roman authorities after

distributing the possessions of the

Church to the poor.

Tradition recounts that St.

Lawrence was born at Huesca, in the

province of Aragon in north-eastern

Spain.

The fact that he was a brave

and capable young man won him

the confidence of Pope Sixtus II,

who entrusted him with the task

of administering the goods of

the Church community in Rome.

Lawrence was a deacon – that is, an

exemplary man chosen and ordained

to help the bishops and priests meet

community members’ needs.

In the early days of the Church

in Jerusalem, there had been seven

deacons responsible for administering

the practical aid contributed for the

relief of widows, orphans and the poor.

Following this example, the Roman

Church too appointed a large number

of deacons, and the Pope placed

them under Lawrence’s supervision

as archdeacon. As in Jerusalem, the

deacons’ ministry collected what was

given by the faithful and distributed it

to the poor.

These were extremely testing

times for the Church. Emperor

Valerian ordered a persecution in

the course of which the Bishop of

Rome himself, under arrest and

under sentence of death, instructed

Lawrence to distribute to the poor all

the goods he was still holding.

The year was 258. Emperor

Valerian issued an edict that all

bishops, priests and those who

worked with them were to be arrested

and condemned. Pope Leo the Great

(400-461), an important personality

in Church history, later wrote, ‘the

wicked persecutor’s ire burned

against this servant of the Church

and he pursued him both on account

of his sacred office and because he

was responsible for administering the

possessions of the Church’.

St. Lawrence | 9

Four days before he was

arrested, Lawrence distributed the

goods in his stores to the poor to

prevent them from being taken by

the Roman authorities. When the

Emperor ordered Lawrence to hand

over everything informants had said

the Church possessed, Lawrence

responded by summoning the large

number of poor people whom he had

helped. As they arrived, Lawrence

said to the Emperor: ‘These are our

treasures! They never decrease,

always bring in an income and can

be found anywhere!’. These were the

martyr’s last words. He was burnt to

death on a gridiron over lighted coals.

Lawrence’s body was buried in

the catacombs on the Via Tiburtina

in Rome. Many churches were built

in his honour, including – on the

initiative of Pope Damasus – one right

on the ruins of the Theatre of Pompey.

St. Lawrence, or San Lorenzo,

is venerated by Catholics and

Orthodox on 10 August. In the West

he is honoured as the patron saint of

deacons and also of cooks and fire-

fighters.

Lawrence’s enduring message

for all Christians is doubtless one of

especial love and care for the poor and

of responsibility in the administration

of possessions.

Maricel Bulai

st. anastasia(† 304)

the sAvIour of the poIsoned, And comforter of cAptIves

Anastasia is a saint who dedicated

her life to the service of prisoners

and in particular to Christians in the

Roman Empire who were thrown into

jail because of their faith.

She was born in Rome in the third

century during the reign of Domitian,

an emperor notorious for his

persecution of Christians. Anastasia

came from a wealthy family. Although

her father was a pagan, her mother

was a Christian, and Anastasia was

given a good education by a Christian

scholar named Chrysogonus.

After the death of her mother,

Anastasia’s father decided to marry

his daughter to a Roman soldier

called Publius, even though this was

against her wishes. After her marriage,

Anastasia regularly made secret

visits to Christians held in Roman

prisons, dressed in clothes below

her station in life. She attempted to

alleviate the prisoners’ sufferings by

taking them food, tending injuries

caused by torture they had suffered,

encouraging them and praying with

them.

After a while, Publius found out

about Anastasia’s clandestine visits

to the prisons and gave orders for

her to be confined to the house.

Her response was to begin a secret

correspondence with her old teacher,

Chrysogonus, who sent her words of

encouragement and also prophesied

that her husband would shortly die

at sea. This prophecy was fulfilled: a

ship on which Publius was travelling

sank, and Anastasia, now on her own,

distributed her fortune to the poor

and dedicated herself to the service

of those in need.

Together with Theodota, a young

widow with three sons, Anastasia

went from town to town caring for

imprisoned Christians. Using her

medical knowledge but also the

power of prayer, she healed wounds

and relieved suffering. She became

particularly well known for her ability

to save the lives of people who had

been poisoned.

Following an edict of Diocletian

St. Anastasia | 11

against Christians, Anastasia, along

with Theodota and her children,

were arrested. They were promised

that they would be released if they

renounced their Christian faith.

When they all refused, Theodota

and her three sons were burnt alive

while Anastasia was condemned to

death by starvation. But after 60 days

without food, Anastasia was still alive.

At this point a Roman judge

ruled that Anastasia should be put

on board a ship together with some

other prisoners who were going to be

put to death by drowning. The ship

was abandoned on the open sea by

Roman soldiers and had begun to sink,

when St. Theodota appeared to the

people on the ship and brought it to

shore. Witnessing this miracle, the 120

people on the ship believed in Christ

and were baptised by Anastasia and

another Christian called Eutychianus.

Shortly afterwards, they fell into the

hands of soldiers again, and all of

them were burnt alive in Sirmium

(modern Mitrovica, in Kosovo).

Monica Zaharia

st. GreGory the illuminator(250–325)

the ApostLe of ArmenIA buILt monAsterIes And provIded the poor wIth food And sheLter

Gregory was born in Vagharshapat,

capital of the Armenian province of

Ararat. His family were not Christians,

but were kind and upright. His father,

Anak, was one of the most important

landowning nobles in Persia. He

was related to Artaban, the Persian

emperor, and to Cursar, brother of the

king of Armenia.

Gregory’s father was killed as a

result of political intrigues, and his

young sons were sent to different

places. Gregory went to Rome,

where he grew up, and then lived

in Cappadocian Caesarea, where he

learned about Jesus Christ. Gregory

married in Caesarea, and had two

sons, Ortan and Arostan, both of

whom he devoted to the service of

the Lord while they were still children.

During his time in Rome, Gregory

entered the service of Tiridates, son of

Cursar, who had meanwhile died. He

served faithfully, and Tiridates grew

attached to Gregory. Some years

later, Tiridates was appointed King of

Armenia by the Roman emperor and

invited Gregory with him.

But King Tiridates sacrificed

to idols, especially the goddess

Artemis. He often asked Gregory to

join him. Gregory always refused

and proclaimed his faith in Jesus the

Christ, the incarnation of the one God,

beside whom there is no other either

in heaven or on earth. Over time, this

infuriated Tiridates, who ordered that

Gregory be subjected to all kinds of

cruel punishments. But God took care

of Gregory and prevented him from

dying, even from torture no unaided

human could survive. Finally the King

of Armenia commanded that Gregory

be thrown into a deep pit in the

fortress of Artaxata. There the saint

of the Armenian people remained for

14 years. God enabled a widow from

the city to bring him a piece of bread

every day, and this kept him alive.

When King Tiridates fell gravely ill,

and doctors could do nothing more

for him, the king sought out Gregory

to seek forgiveness and prayers.

Healing came, and Tiridates believed

St. Gregory the Illuminator | 13

in God. At that moment, Gregory’s

apostolic work began. He asked the

king to build a church and some

monasteries, around which the poor

and the homeless could be fed and

housed.

After this, Gregory was sent by

the king to Archbishop Leontius

to be consecrated bishop. Once

consecrated, he baptised thousands

of Armenians at a time, beginning

with the king, around the entire

nation. He thus went down in history

as the apostle to the Armenians.

The Armenian Apostolic Church

celebrates his feast on 30 September.

Narcis Stupcanu

st. nicholas(3rd–4th cent.)

frIend of chILdren, orphAns And those sufferIng InJustIce; A modeL of sAInthood for ALL chrIstIAns

St. Nicholas is without doubt one

of the best-loved saints in the whole

world. In nearly every culture the

Church has touched, many people

know that St. Nicholas set an example

of kindness towards suffering people,

and especially of love towards

children.

He was born sometime near the

end of the third century at Patara in

Lycia, a town in present-day Turkey.

His childhood was not a happy one, as

his parents died when he was young.

Nicholas withdrew to a monastery

near Myra in Lycia, a port town on

the Mediterranean. Here he learned

as much as he could about God and

about God’s greatest commandment:

love for Him and for one’s neighbour.

He gave away much of the wealth he

inherited.

Word spread of his holiness and

wisdom, and Nicholas was elected

Bishop of Myra in Lycia, a position that

gave him opportunities to help even

more people. It was recorded that a

poor man of Myra had three daughters

who had all reached marriageable

age. At that time, a bride’s dowry was

extremely important in arranging

marriages. The larger the dowry,

the greater were the girl’s chances

of getting married. Because the

unfortunate man was not able to give

his daughters substantial dowries,

local custom dictated that the father

sell unmarriageable daughters as

slaves. But St. Nicholas secretly gave

each daughter a bag of gold coins,

without the family knowing who had

given this valuable present. And so he

saved the girls from a life of slavery.

Nicholas obeyed the Saviour’s

words: ‘Sell your possessions and give

to the poor’. He devoted his entire

income to relief for the poor, the sick

and the suffering. He made many

secret donations without expecting

anything in return. On many

occasions he took up defence of the

innocent, even risking his life to do so.

For this reason, St. Nicholas was exiled

and imprisoned during the rule of the

Roman Emperor Diocletian.

St. Nicholas | 15

Christianity was a banned religion

at that time. Christians were punished

and even put to death for the simple

fact that they were Christians.

After Constantine became Roman

Emperor, and Christianity became

officially tolerated all over the Empire,

St. Nicholas was freed from prison. He

returned to his flock in Myra in Lycia,

where he remained until the year 342

when he passed into eternity. After

his death, when people inspired by

the Bishop of Myra gave anonymously

to the poor, they began a tradition of

attributing their gifts to St. Nicholas.

Even though so many centuries

have gone by since the death of St.

Nicholas, he is still remembered by

Christians everywhere as a friend

of children, orphans and those

suffering injustice. He is venerated

by both Orthodox and Catholics

and honoured by Protestants, on

6 December, and continues to be

a shining example of love to one’s

neighbour and a model of holiness

for the entire Christian world.

Narcis Stupcanu

st. Basil the Great(330 – 379)

founder of hospItALs, housIng for orphAns And the eLderLy, schooLs, And hosteLs for ‘strAngers’

St. Basil was born in 330 in

Cappadocian Caesarea, a city in

Asia Minor. His family is one of the

most famous in the entire history of

Christendom, since it produced no

fewer than seven saints: St. Macrina

the Old, Basil’s grandmother; his

father, a famous orator, St. Basil the

Elder; St. Emilia, his mother; St. Basil

himself and his brothers St. Gregory

of Nyssa and St. Peter of Sebaste; and

his sister St. Macrina the Young.

From his earliest years, Basil

benefitted from an excellent

education. Studying in the renowned

schools of Constantinople and

Athens, he gained fame as a brilliant

scholar and administrator, and briefly

practiced law. Influenced by his sister’s

work against poverty, Basil took

monastic vows and devoted himself

to living in community amongst the

poor.

In 370 Basil was elected Bishop of

Caesarea, a position which made it

much easier for him to develop social

justice projects such as the then-

world-famous ‘Basiliad’ or ‘Basilry’ – a

complex of houses and dwellings

where orphans, widows and the

elderly could live and be cared for.

In addition, the complex included

hospitals and hospices, academic

schools and vocational training

for the unskilled (including former

thieves), as well as guesthouses for

visitors to the city.

St. Basil thus brought into being

around his church a little town

in which no one was overlooked.

Children were educated by well-

trained teachers, the elderly were

cared for by monks and nuns, widows

were provided for and could pursue

dignified work helping to meet

others’ needs. Foreigners or ‘strangers’

passing through could find food

and safe overnight accommodation.

Doctors, nurses and everyone

involved lived on site, within the

community.

St. Basil the Great’s Basilry was an

ideal world governed by kindness,

compassion, mutual help, love

St. Basil the Great | 17

for one’s neighbours, and a desire

for God to be glorified. During a

time of famine and drought, Basil’s

administrative genius ensured

distribution of enough food to spare

the lives of most of the poor in his

region.

Construction of the Basiliad was

only part of Basil’s social work project.

After he had laid the foundations of

regular monastic life, establishing

numerous monasteries in all parts of

his diocese, he went on to build more

hospitals and homes for the sick and

the poor.

St. Basil the Great passed into

eternity on 1 January 379, at the age

of only 49 and is celebrated by the

Church on that day. Public grief at his

death included Jews, atheists, and

foreigners. In a violent world and a

time of great divisions and conflicts

in Christendom, Basil was fearless of

state and political leaders in taking

up the causes of those who could not

speak out for themselves. His words

live on in importance: ‘We should

work not for food that perishes but for

food that is eternal. This food is to do

the will of God’. The will of the Father

is ‘to feed the hungry, to give drink to

the thirsty and to clothe the naked’.

St. Basil exemplified a life of work that

is not an end in itself, but is focussed

eternally on others, especially the

poor and suffering.

Narcis Stupcanu

st. martin of tours(316 - 397)

chAmpIon of the poor And destItute

Martin of Tours devoted his life to

helping the poor and the sick.

He was born in 316 in Sabaria in

Pannonia (modern Hungary) into the

family of a Roman tribune. Although

his parents were pagans, he enrolled

himself on the list of catechumens

(those preparing to receive baptism)

at the age of 10.

Since the Emperor had decreed

that all sons of Roman officers had to

follow a military career, Martin joined

the cavalry and swore the military

oath. Unlike other officers, he was

content with a single servant and

treated him like a brother. He stayed

away from fellow officers’ parties and

excesses and, within a short time, won

everyone’s respect for his kindness.

One particular incident imprinted

itself on the memories of all his

contemporaries: As Martin was

carrying out military operations in

Gaul (France), he passed through

the French town of Amiens and

encountered a beggar trembling

with cold. Officers in front of him did

not so much as look at the man, but

Martin felt that God had planned this

meeting to give him an opportunity

to do good. He drew his sword and

cut the long cloak he was wearing

into two pieces; one he gave to the

beggar, and the other he wrapped

around himself. That night, according

to accounts of the saint’s life, Martin

had a dream in which Jesus Christ,

clothed in the half-cloak he had given

to the poor man, said to the angels

surrounding him, ‘Martin, who is only

a catechumen, clothed me with this

garment’.

At age 18 Martin abandoned his

military career and was baptised

by Bishop Hilary of Poitiers. This

same bishop was later to ordain him

priest, although Martin attempted to

prevent him doing so and asked to

live a life of extreme simplicity and

solitude dedicated to prayer and

preaching.

Martin’s reputation grew so wide

that in 371 he was elected a bishop,

against his will. He was asked one day

St. Martin of Tours | 19

by local Christians to go to a person

at the point of death. Martin swiftly

set out with them, when on the way

a group of armed men appeared and

forced him to go with them. They had

been sent by the Christian community

of Tours who were without a bishop

and had chosen him. The cries of the

people persuaded Martin of their

need for a spiritual leader.

As bishop, Martin continued to

live frugally, championed the poor

and destitute, and refused to tolerate

injustice and oppression. When

occasion required, he could withstand

even emperors and prevent them

from making unjust decisions that

disadvantaged the weakest members

of society. He spoke on behalf of

condemned prisoners, even those he

disagreed with doctrinally.

As soon as he died, Martin became

the best known and most venerated

saint in Europe. What is known of

his humble life gives an inspiring

example of someone who loved the

poor and defended the weak. He is

the patron saint of soldiers, of the

poor and of the unjustly treated, and

is celebrated by the Orthodox Church

on 11 October and by the Catholic

Church on 11 November.

Maricel Bulai

st. stylianos of PaPhlaGonia(4th cent.)

protector of the newborn And of chrIstIAn fAmILIes

Stylianos was born at Adrianopolis

in the province of Paphlagonia in Asia

Minor (modern-day Turkey). He came

from a poor family, and worked hard

to earn a living. But his family taught

him to love God, the One Who had

never abandoned him when he was

in need.

St. Stylianos lived in the ‘golden

century’ of Christianity, marking

the ending of Roman persecution,

systematisation of the truths of the

faith, and flowering of the ascetic

life. Attracted by the idea of solitude,

Stylianos became a desert hermit, but

Stylianos’ great love for others led him

to seek opportunities in surrounding

communities to do good wherever he

could and only after this to return to

his cave cell for rest and prayer.

Praying one night, Stylianos was

overwhelmed by the presence of God.

What took place in his cell on that

occasion is not known, but witnesses

the following day reported that his

face radiated a deep joy and peace.

Encountering a sick child, he tried to

console the child, and when he put

his hand on the child’s head he felt the

power of God pass through his hand.

The child recovered immediately.

From that time onwards Stylianos

seemed acutely aware of any human

pain, even from a great distance.

Stylianos’s cell became a place of

pilgrimage for the sick and suffering,

many of whom regained health.

These pilgrimages were known not

only for St. Stylianos’ healing but for

the great faith of the pilgrims.

Although he was not highly

educated, Stylianos proved to be a

knowledgeable teacher. It is reported

that many families entrusted their

children to him so that he could lead

them to God. This was perhaps the

very first crèche in history – a nursery

school where mothers could leave

their smallest children while they

completed household duties.

Thus St. Stylianos became the

patron saint of newborns, children,

and families in general. He was

unfailingly benevolent and full of

St. Stylianos of Paphlagonia | 21

love, according to contemporaries.

His smile was famous, even more so

as old age came to him.

St. Stylianos passed over to

the Lord in a state of exceptional

peace, his face shining ‘like the sun’,

giving glory to God for all things. St.

Stylianos is honoured as protector of

young children and of the Christian

family in general. His life of prayer and

spiritual zeal brought about miracles,

and the healings he is most credited

with involved children suffering

from all kinds of diseases. He is

commemorated on 26 November in

the Christian Orthodox calendar.

Narcis Stupcanu

st. John the almsGiver(550-619)

chAmpIon of the poor – shArIng not onLy hIs goods, but ALso the goods of the church

John was born around the year

550 at Amathos in Cyprus, into the

family of Epiphanius, governor of

the island. John’s generosity towards

the unfortunate and needy – whom

he called his ‘masters’ because of

their influence ‘at the Court of the

Most High’– earned him the title ‘the

Merciful’.

John married, but his wife and

his children died, and he turned to

religious life, using his resources to

assist poor families with gifts small

and large. Eventually he was called

to occupy the patriarchal seat of

Alexandria, left vacant by the death

of Patriarch Theodore. His installation,

in the year 611, made him the fifth

Patriarch of Alexandria to bear the

name of John.

At that time the Patriarchate

of Alexandria had at its disposal

abundant material resources derived

from commercial activities. John

generously distributed to the poor not

only possessions of the Patriarchate,

but what remained of his own

possessions too. Once, when he was

given a richly embroidered blanket,

he could not sleep until he sold it

and distributed the money to the

poor. On another occasion, someone

expressed amazement at his great

generosity towards the destitute.

Patriarch John told him he had seen

a vision in which Mercy appeared

in the form of a beautiful young girl

encouraging him to pursue her, since

she was ‘the eldest daughter of the

Lord’.

In his role of Patriarch, John freed

many slaves, re-organised the system

of weights and measures to benefit

the poor, battled corruption, and

multiplied the number of churches

in Alexandria 10 times. He took

a personal interest in individuals

needing help, but also performed

acts of mercy that touched thousands

of lives at once. Sometimes his

charity served a specifically Christian

purpose, but on other occasions

everyone benefitted, whatever their

faith, class or nationality. When

St. John the Almsgiver | 23

Muslims invaded Jerusalem, Patriarch

John helped to save inhabitants of

the city by providing large sums

of money and huge quantities of

wine, corn, oil and clothing, besides

baggage animals to transport the

desperately needed goods.

Often St. John’s generosity

seemed excessive. A close associate

realised that a certain man was

trying to cheat John by coming back

to him again and again in different

disguises for alms. When the Patriarch

was informed of this, he replied that

the man in disguise might be Christ

Himself. When a serious argument

sprang up between him and the

imperial prefect Nichita, a good

friend, because Nichita wanted to

appropriate some Church resources

for troops of Emperor Heraclius in his

struggle against Muslims, John stood

firm against these attempts, and in

the end Nichita apologised.

In 619, when Muslims invaded

Egypt, Patriarch John was forced to

flee from Alexandria. He returned

to his native Cyprus and died soon

afterwards, many years after asking

a servant to daily remind him ‘My

lord, your tomb is unfinished. Pray

give orders for its completion, for

you know not the hour when death

may seize you’. The Orthodox Church

remembers St. John the Almsgiver

every 12 November.

Narcis Stupcanu

st. francis of assisi(1182 – 1226)

chAmpIon of the poor And the sIck

Francis of Assisi is a 13th-century

saint who lived amongst the poor

and nursed the sick. He founded the

Franciscan Order, widely influencing

the spiritual life of the Middle Ages.

He was born at Assisi in Italy in 1182,

son of a wealthy merchant named

Pietro Bernardone.

Francis was a spirited young man

who wanted to become a knight. The

city-states of Assisi and Perugia were

at war, and Francis went to fight. But

Assisi lost, and Francis was held as a

prisoner for two years.

After his release, Francis began

to help the needy, taking cloth from

his father’s shop and distributing it

amongst the poor. Pietro Bernardone

was worried by his son’s behaviour

and extremely angry that Francis was

taking money and material from the

shop. One day the father complained

to the bishop, who summoned Francis

to appear before him, with his father

present. Francis returned the money

to his father, took off his clothes and

placed them at his feet, saying, ‘From

now onwards this is how I am going to

pray: Our Father who art in heaven…’.

The bishop gave Francis a tunic to

cover himself. From that moment,

Francis was free to serve Christ in the

poor and sick. Some considered him

mad, but his joyful and authentic love

for Christ, all nature and all people

attracted many, both from wealth and

power and from poverty, to embrace

his way of life.

If Francis and his followers saw a

poor woman with many children who

could not manage her housework,

they helped her. They worked with

labourers in fields, and sang simple

hymns as they did menial labour for

food. They wore tunics of the poorest

peasants, tied with rope, and their

feet were usually bare.

For Francis, poverty was his ‘lady’

and his sister. He visited hospitals,

nursed the sick, preached in the streets

in the language of the poor and lower

classes, and considered all people his

brothers and sisters He laboured with

his own hands at cleaning churches

St. Francis of Assisi | 25

and rebuilding squalid dwellings and

places for worship. Few medieval lives

were more thoroughly documented,

in both public and private contexts.

He spoke out for justice, reconciliation

and kindness towards ‘friend or foe,

thief or robber’.

At Vittorina, not far from Assisi,

was a leprosarium. Passing it, Francis

would close his eyes and stop his

nose, unable to bear the stench. One

day he was walking nearby when

a leper appeared in his path and

asked for alms. Compelled, Francis

approached the leper, gave him alms

and kissed his sores.

‘When I withdrew from amongst

them [the wealthier companions he

was born to]’ – he said the day before

his death on 3 October 1226 at age

45 – ‘what had seemed to me up to

then to be bitter changed, as far as I

was concerned, into sweet spiritual

consolation’.

Francis was declared a saint by

Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228

and is celebrated by Catholics on 17

September. He is the patron saint of

birds, animals and ecology, and of

Italy.

Maricel Bulai

Bl. Jeremy of vallachia (1556 – 1625)

pAtron sAInt of nurses, of the sIck, And of ImmIgrAnts

Jeremy was born 29 June 1556

at Sasca in northern Moldova, into a

very godly family. At his baptism he

was given the name Ion. He was a

simple man, upright and full of the

fear of God.

One day a beggar said, ‘Ion, you

will go beyond the mountains to a

country called Italy. Then, when you

have reached the end of your journey,

you will enter the service of a great

lord. You will serve him with much

love and joy and will be abundantly

repaid’.

At age 18 Ion did set out for Italy

with a desire to become holy. His

mother, Margareta, had told him of

good people and holy monks from

this faraway Italy, and her words

fascinated Ion. In 1578 he reached

Naples and entered a Capuchin

monastery. (The Capuchins are a

Catholic monastic order, a branch of

the Franciscan Order founded by St.

Francis of Assisi.) There he took the

name Jeremy.

For 40 years, Brother Jeremy

cared for the sick of Naples with

great gentleness and self-sacrifice.

He reached out to build enduring

friendships with everyone: the small

and the great, the poor and the rich,

the healthy and the sick. When he

was not in surrounding communities

seeking out poor people to help, he

could be found serving in the homes

of the sick.

Brother Salvatore, a monk whose

arms and legs were misshapen, was

incapable of most movement. Jeremy

raised him tenderly from his bed and

washed him as a mother washes

her infant. No night passed in which

Salvatore did not call for his nurse,

until one day he was reprimanded by

another brother. But Jeremy came to

Brother Salvatore’s defence, saying,

‘The poor man! He can’t do anything

for himself. He’s like a little child!’.

Jeremy was known to often say that

love shown to the poor and the sick

brings the mercy and blessing of God.

Bl. Jeremy of Vallachia | 27

Jeremy spent 4 1/2 years looking

after another sick monk, Brother

Martin. No one else would touch

Martin, because he was covered with

sores. But Jeremy gladly washed

Martin’s wounds as often as 10 times

a day. He underlined the fact that God

wanted him at Martin’s side, saying,

‘I felt God while I was praying’, as

he tended the monk’s sores. When

Brother Martin died, Jeremy burst out

weeping, ‘Poor Brother Martin, he was

my recreation…’.

Jeremy died at Naples on 5 March

1625. He was beatified by Pope John

Paul II on 30 October 1983.

He is known today as Blessed

Jeremy of Vallachia and is celebrated

by the Catholic Church on 8 May.

Marcelin Blaj

nikolaus von ZinZendorf(1700 – 1760)

protector of chrIstIAn refugees from bohemIA, InItIAtor of the modern mIssIonAry movement And pIoneer of ecumenIsm

Count Nikolaus (sometimes spelled

Nicolaus) Ludwig von Zinzendorf was

born into an aristocratic family in

Dresden, Germany. After his father’s

death, the young count was raised

by his maternal grandmother and

an aunt, who gave him a privileged

education.

Even as a child Zinzendorf showed

particular interest in religious life.

Later, influenced by his family, he

studied law in preparation for a career

as a diplomat. Yet he continued to

be more interested in theological

literature. Completing his studies,

he returned to Dresden, where his

position as a lawyer and the king’s

judicial counsellor enabled him

to travel a great deal. On one of

these journeys, he was viewing the

art gallery in Düsseldorf when his

attention was arrested by a painting

titled Ecce homo (Latin for ‘Behold

the man!’), depicting the sufferings of

Jesus Christ. Below the painting was

written: ‘See what I did for thee! What

wilt thou do for me?’ Zinzendorf stood

in front of this picture a long time,

deeply affected both by the painting

and its accompanying words. This

experience profoundly affected his

future.

Zinzendorf inherited an estate

from his grandmother, and opened it

as a haven for refugees from Bohemia

and Moravia who were members of

the persecuted Unitas fratrum church

(the Moravian Brethren). This new

settlement was named Herrnhut

(‘The Protection of the Lord’).

Giving up his legal position,

Zinzendorf moved with his family

to Herrnhut to facilitate unity within

the diverse community of oppressed

religious minorities forming there.

Zinzendorf did not wish to leave

the Lutheran church in moving to

Herrnhut (he himself had become

an ordained Lutheran priest), but he

did advocate reform, and attempted

reconciliation between Christian

traditions whenever possible. Many

Herrnhut refugees were unwilling

to give up their own doctrines, and

Nikolaus von Zinzendorf | 29

when the Lutheran church became

aware of these differences it wanted

to exercise complete authority over

the Herrnhut community.

Zinzendorf was exiled for more

than 10 years, during which he

undertook missionary journeys in

Europe and America. A meeting

with Daniel Jablonsky, bishop of the

Moravian Brethren, led to Zinzendorf

being ordained as a minister of that

church.

In 1747 Zinzendorf received

permission to return to Herrnhut, and

there he spent the final years of his

life.

Zinzendorf was one of the first

religious leaders to use the word

‘ecumenism’. He has gone down in

history as a champion of religious

liberty. Emphasising prayer and Bible

reading, he preached a ‘religion of the

heart’ in which faith and love counted

for more than doctrine. He was a

passionate sponsor of and participant

in Christian mission, and by the time

he died in 1760 the Moravians had

more than 200 missionaries scattered

throughout the world.

Today he is celebrated for

exhorting people of divergent

doctrines to live together in peace

and in imitation of Christ Jesus, and

for tirelessly modelling this in his own

life. Von Zinzendorf is commemorated

by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in

America on 9 May.

Adina Petric

william wilBerforce(1759 -1833)

fAmous brItIsh poLItIcIAn And socIAL reformer; chrIstIAn phILAnthropIst And LeAder of the movement for the AboLItIon of sLAvery

William Wilberforce was born

in 1759 in Yorkshire in the north of

England. After studying at St John’s

College, Cambridge, he began his

political career in 1780, entering

Parliament as an independent.

Wilberforce became an

evangelical Christian in the context

of a powerful spiritual awakening

taking place in England during the

18th century. After his conversion

Wilberforce became actively involved

in numerous campaigns for a wide

range of social causes. He was one of

the founders of such organisations

as the Society for the Suppression of

Vice, the Society for the Reformation

of Manners [morals], the Charity

Schools, the Church Missionary

Society, and the Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In addition, he supported Christian

missionary work in India and helped

the needy in countless ways.

Christianity’s teachings led the

young member of Parliament to his

conviction that all people share equal

value in the sight of God and to his

ensuing struggles to bring about

abolition of slavery. Wilberforce was

supported in this endeavour by John

Newton, an Anglican minister who

had formerly been a slave trader.

When Wilberforce faced personal

crisis regarding whether to remain

in politics or devote himself to

church affairs, Newton advised him

to do both, noting that a Christian

involved in politics can contribute to

transforming the world.

From the second half of the

17th century onwards, British ships

transported 3,415,000 African

slaves across the Atlantic. More than

500,000 died at sea, as a consequence

of appalling conditions on board ship

(lack of food, hygiene, medical care

and rest).

In 1787, Wilberforce, together with

Thomas Clarkson, a prominent anti-

slavery campaigner, and the lawyer

Granville Sharp, formed the group

which became known as the Clapham

Sect. They set out to gather evidence

William Wilberforce | 31

needed to bring about change in the

law to abolish the inhumane Slave

Trade. For more than 30 years they

carried on a modern-style political

campaign, organising petitions and

boycotts, making speeches and

holding meetings. They set up the

Committee for the Abolition of the

Slave Trade, organised propaganda

campaigns all over the country,

and made their voice heard in the

British Parliament. Although more

and more people came to agree

with Wilberforce, and he and his

associates even won the support

of the Prime Minister, they failed to

achieve change in the law. Every

petition brought before the House of

Commons was opposed by economic

interests upholding continuance of

slavery.

Not until 1807 did they

achieve their first victory, when

the government of Charles James

Fox passed a law abolishing the

slave trade anywhere within British

jurisdiction. Wilberforce and friends

spent another 26 years amassing

documentary evidence, pleading

the cause and organising annual

petitions. Finally, in 1833, three days

before he died, William Wilberforce

learned that Parliament had legislated

for abolition of slavery itself in every

part of the British Empire.

Cristian Zaharia

st. Giovanni Bosco(1815 – 1888)

defender of orphAns, pAtron sAInt of young peopLe, And founder of the sALesIAn order

Giovanni Bosco was born at Becchi

in Italy on 16 August 1815. His mother

Margareta, who was left a widow

with four children, gave him a sound

humanistic and Christian education.

Don Bosco was the name by which his

acquaintances called him.

From his ordination as priest at

Turin in 1841, Giovanni Bosco set as

his principal aim the education of

the young, above all those who were

poor and abandoned.

The first child to benefit from

Don Bosco’s help was an orphan boy

whom the priest took into his own

home.

Over time, Don Bosco opened

his home to a growing group

of abandoned boys, who were

sometimes otherwise imprisoned.

He needed a larger place for them

all to live, and found a barn, where

he formed his first oratory (a home

for poor children). Every morning

Don Bosco celebrated the Liturgy

together with the boys, after which

he would eat with them. After the

meal, the boys would set off for work:

some were apprentices in factories or

in carpentry or metal workshops, and

others were shop boys or waiters.

In that era, employers kept labour

costs low by taking on women and

children as workers. In 1844, 7,184

children worked in factories in the

Piedmont region of Italy. The working

day lasted 16 to 18 hours. When

Don Bosco’s boys left the house, he

would leave too, to solicit alms from

wealthier members of the community

so that he could support the boys, as

well as improve their training and

education to enable them to leave

the most dangerous industries. He

said of these boys, ‘Their faces were

black [from work], but how beautiful

their souls were!’.

Helped by his mother Margareta,

Don Bosco opened the Oratory

of St. Francis of Sales – a place for

Sunday meetings, and a complex of

schools offering training in crafts and

trades for young workers, along with

classical subjects). Night classes were

St. Giovanni Bosco | 33

offered to children and adults after

local factories’ working hours.

Don Bosco kept bringing more

boys home every day, prompting his

mother to say, ‘All you ever do is look

for more boys, and I can’t think where

I’m going to put them’.

One little boy called Carligo was

crying when Don Bosco met him.

‘What’s happened to you?’ Don Bosco

asked. ‘My mother’s died. I don’t know

where to go’. ‘Come with me. I am only

a poor priest, but so long as I have a

morsel of bread I will share it with you’.

Don Bosco’s work helping

disadvantaged children and young

people continued after the founding

of the Society of St. Francis of Sales

(by which future priests were trained

to educate disadvantaged youth)

and founding of the Order of the

Daughters of Mary the Helper (which

provided poor girls an education).

These orders opened 250 homes for

more than 130,000 children.

Giovanni Bosco died on 31

January 1888 and was canonised by

Pope Pius XI in 1934. He is the patron

saint of youth, being celebrated by

the Catholic Church on 31 January.

Marcelin Blaj

st. damien de veuster (1840 – 1889)

mIssIonAry to hAwAII’s Lepers

St. Damien de Veuster, Apostle

of the Lepers, was a 19th-century

missionary priest who devoted

himself to the needs of lepers on the

island of Molokai, in Hawaii.

He was born on 3 January 1840

at Tremelo in Belgium, the son of a

farmer, and was baptised Jozef. His

family was loving, he received an

excellent education, and he made

numerous friends.

Following in the footsteps of his

brother Augustin, Jozef wanted to

become a missionary priest. At age

19 he entered the Congregation

of the Missionaries of the Sacred

Heart of Jesus and Mary and took

the name Damien. Not yet a priest,

Damien arrived in Honolulu in 1864

after a voyage lasting 138 days. Once

ordained, he was sent to preach the

Gospel in the east of Hawaii, a region

where native religious superstitions

and cultural differences posed

enormous challenges. He stayed

for nine years, and often found the

isolation unbearable.

In Hawaii, many diseases were

taking a terrible toll on the native

population, including leprosy. Fearing

further spread of the disease, the

government quarantined all lepers on

the island of Molokai, separating the

sick from their families and those who

could care for them. In 1873 Damien

volunteered to go to the island’s leper

colony, then home to 816 sufferers. In

all, 8,000 would be sent to Molokai.

The first leper Damien met was a

young man who was dying. Despite

the almost unbearable smell, Father

Damien prayed at his bedside for

half an hour. This scene remained

with him for all the 16 years he lived

amongst the lepers.

Molokai was nicknamed ‘Death

Island’. In the first eight months after

Damien’s arrival, there were 183

deaths. Damien built coffins and

dug graves. He carried on unceasing

efforts with authorities to persuade

them to improve living conditions,

nutrition and medical care. He

founded chapels, constructed huts,

St. Damien de Veuster | 35

organised bands and choirs, and tried

all possible means to bring order and

peace amidst the chronic, long-term

suffering.

Damien was loved by the local

people and became known as Makna

(father) Kamiano. As well as being the

lepers’ priest, he was also their doctor.

He bandaged their sores, carried

them in his arms and cared for them

as best he could.

There came a day when his

preaching took a new turn and he

addressed his congregation with the

words ‘We lepers…’. He wrote in a

letter, ‘I make myself a leper with the

lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ’.

After contracting leprosy, Damien

died on 15 April 1889 at age 49, cared

for at the end by nuns and other

priests who had arrived to help him in

his work. His story became known all

over the world. Mahatma Gandhi said

that Father Damien’s example had

been a source of inspiration when he

himself was campaigning to improve

conditions in India.

As a direct result of Father

Damien’s work, humanitarian aid

reached the island of Molokai, and

with the advent of the 20th century,

hospitals, children’s homes and other

resources were built.

Damien was beatified by Pope

John Paul II in 1995, and canonised

by Pope Bernedict XVI on 11 October

2009. He is the patron saint of Hawaii,

and the unofficial patron of HIV and

AIDS sufferers, and is celebrated by

the Catholic Church on 10 May.

Maricel Bulai

GeorGe müller (1805- 1898)

mAn of fAIth And fAther of orphAns

Born in Germany in 1805, George

Müller became widely known as ‘the

father of orphans’ for his help to more

than 10,000 children who had lost

their parents. He provided homes and

an education, along with experiences

preparing them for integration into

society. Faith and prayer formed the

base of his philanthropic work.

Müller studied theology at

university, as his father had wished,

but was not converted until age

21. After graduation he moved to

England, where he worked for a

missionary society and later as a

preacher. He refused to be paid for

his work, insisting that God would

provide for his financial needs. Müller

began work in local communities on

his own initiative in 1834 by founding

The Scripture Knowledge Institution

for Home and Abroad, with the goal

of spreading the message of the Bible

and supporting missionary activity.

In 1835 he and his wife opened

their first orphanage, inspired by the

example of a Lutheran pastor, August

Hermann Francke, who 128 years

earlier had founded a number of

homes in Germany entirely supported

by money received in response to

prayer.

When Müller began this work he

had neither financial resources nor

a building. He rented a house and

with his wife took in, cared for and

began educating 30 young girls. Eight

months later he rented another house

and opened a second orphanage, for

36 children, followed shortly by a

third home with room for another 36

children.

As the orphans made so much

noise that they disturbed the

neighbours, Müller had to find more

suitable accommodation for them.

After praying, he decided to build a

number of houses on the edge of the

city of Bristol, and began construction

on the first house, large enough

to hold 140 girls, 80 boys and 80

younger children. He later built four

more houses, each with room for up

to 450 children. By 1870, the Müller

George Müller | 37

orphanages housed 2,250 children

and employed 112 staff. Their

education was high quality, causing

local critics to complain he was

‘raising the poor above their natural

station in life’.

Müller frequently confronted

financial crises, since costs of caring

for and educating the children

exceeded resources at his disposal.

But he never went in debt. On one

occasion, when there was no money

at all, he prayed that God would open

the heart of a well-known London

merchant to help him. Within a short

time a cheque arrived from the man

in question. Many similar situations

allowed God to reward Müller’s faith

and prayers, always providing him

with a way out of crisis.

In the last years of his life, George

Müller undertook a large number

of missionary journeys to Egypt,

Palestine, Russia, India and other

countries. Everywhere, he spoke to

people about the way in which God

answers prayer and encouraged them

to become involved in charitable work

for the good of their neighbours.

Adina Petric

st. ilia the riGhteous (1837- 1907)

fAther of the georgIAn nAtIon; defender of cuLture And georgIAn conscIousness

Ilia Chavchavadze, canonised in

1987 as St. Ilia the Righteous, was

a well-known writer, journalist and

jurist who led the movement for

Georgian national independence in

the second half of the 19th century.

He was born Prince Ilia

Chavchavadze in Kvareli in Georgia,

which at that time was part of the

Russian empire. He was the third

child in a cultivated noble family.

Patriotism, the guiding principle of his

life, was something he learned from

both his parents: his father, a career

soldier, and his mother, who was

very interested in classical Georgian

literature. He grew up amidst poems

and historical stories, read to him by

his mother, telling of heroic deeds of

his forefathers.

During high school, after the

deaths of his parents and of his

brother Constantin, Ilia began to write

poetry and immerse himself further

in books and literature. In 1857 he

enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the

University of St. Petersburg in Russia.

He made a habit of spending a great

deal of time in the archives, searching

for documents regarding the history

of Georgia.

In 1861, after completing his

studies, Ilia returned to Georgia

at a time when ‘Russification’ was

threatening Georgia’s national and

cultural identity. Ilia embarked upon

an intensive programme of political,

social and cultural activities. He

founded two of the most popular

political newspapers of the time,

using them to argue for freeing the

country from Russian domination, for

the founding of a modern Georgian

state and for autocephalous (or self-

governing) status for the Georgian

Orthodox Church. Believing rebirth of

the Georgian language to be essential

to awakening national consciousness,

he campaigned for Georgian

schoolchildren to be taught in their

mother tongue and for dissemination

of Georgian literature. His founding

of the Society for the Promotion

of Literacy amongst the Georgians

St. Ilia the Righteous | 39

was a means to this end. He likewise

established an archive for protecting

ancient manuscripts, objects of

historical significance and also works

representative of national folklore.

Besides founding a number of cultural

organisations and being a member of

others, he translated works of British

literature into Georgian.

Ilia cited three great guiding

principles in his life: his country, his

native language, and his faith. His

loyalty to these principles made him

many enemies, especially amongst

supporters of Marxist ideology, who

were atheists and opposed to the idea

of a Georgian ‘nation’. He also publicly

opposed revolutionary violence.

In 1906-1907 Ilia Chavchavadze

served as a member of the Russian

Council of State. He returned to

Georgia, and was assassinated by

a criminal band while on a journey

with his wife, Olga. Circumstances

of his death remain surrounded by

controversy to this day.

After Georgia was incorporated

into the Soviet Union, Ilia became the

symbol of the freedom of the Georgian

people. Today he is considered the

father of the Georgian nation and is

celebrated by the Georgian Orthodox

Church on 2 August.

Monica Zaharia

st. John of kronstadt (1829 - 1908)

precursor of urbAn mIssIon; founder of the ‘phILAnthropIc cIty’

Ivan Ilyich Sergeyev, later known

as St. John of Kronstadt, was born

on 19 November 1829 in the hamlet

of Sura in the distant region of

Archangel in northern Russia. He was

the son of Ilya Mihailovich Sergeyev

and Feodora Vasilyevna.

John attended the parish school

in Archangel and later the Theological

Seminary in that city. He obtained

a scholarship to the Theological

Academy in St. Petersburg, graduating

in 1855. On 12 November that year,

he was ordained priest for the parish

of St. Andrew in Kronstadt. There he

served for 53 years, dedicating himself

heart and soul to the cultural and

spiritual growth of the community of

believers.

His initial experiences made John

keenly aware of difficulties he would

face in his pastoral mission. It took

almost 19 years for the foundation of a

charitable building to be laid. The first

step (in 1874) was creation of a parish

centre (an administrative institution)

designed to help the poor. Next came

the first ‘love of work house’, which

developed into ‘a town within the

town’. It contained a spinning factory

and workshops for production of

men’s caps. More than 7,000 people

found employment here.

John’s institution set up a free

public library and established a free

elementary school (259 children

enrolled there in 1903), along with

training workshops for a variety of

trades, a tailoring workshop for girls, a

shoemaking workshop, an art studio,

a children’s library (with 2,687 books in

1896), and a Sunday school attended

by more than 150 young people.

Public lectures and conferences were

available to the community.

John of Kronstadt’s ‘philanthropic

city’ also included charitable

residential institutions: a home for

orphan children, a day centre for pre-

school children, a children’s holiday

centre outside the town, a home for

poor women, and a night shelter for

travellers.

St. John of Kronstadt | 41

Besides this, Father John took

care of health needs amongst

his parishioners, and founded a

canteen where 400 to 800 poor

people were given a hot meal every

day. The same institution provided

the poor with money, clothing,

shoes and other necessaries. A

significant development in St.

John’s administration was that his

‘philanthropic city’ targeted aid: each

needy person’s situation was carefully

assessed before aid was distributed.

In 1908, at age 79, St. John of

Kronstadt stepped into eternity as one

of the most beloved Russian clerics,

leaving as his legacy an example

of how generosity towards one’s

fellow men can multiply many times

over. The Russian Orthodox Church

celebrates him on 20 December.

Narcis Stupcanu

Jean henri dunant(1828 – 1910)

wrIter, phILAnthropIst And socIAL ActIvIst; founder of the InternAtIonAL commIttee of the red cross

Jean Henri Dunant was born in

Geneva, Switzerland, into a family

of wealthy Reformed Christians for

whom involvement in charity work

was a significant part of life. His father

concentrated on helping orphans,

while his mother aided the poor.

At age 28, on a business trip to

Algeria, Henri started a company

to trade in cereals. Finding that his

rights to land he had bought and to a

water supply were not clearly defined

by law, he resolved to go direct to

Emperor Napoleon III to defend his

interests.

That year, 1859, Napoleon was

in the middle of a war against Franz

Josef of Austria and had established

military headquarters at Solferino in

Italy, where armies of the two sides

were drawn up ready to fight. Dunant

arrived in Solferino in the evening

after the battle (24 June 1859), and

confronted the aftermath of war:

38,000 dead, dying and wounded left

lying on the battlefield.

Appalled, young Henri took the

initiative of organising the civilian

population, particularly women

and girls, to provide medical help

to the wounded soldiers. Taking

as their motto ‘We are all brothers’,

Henri’s teams aided all the wounded,

irrespective of which side a soldier had

fought for. The medical teams were

short of materials and supplies, but

donations and Dunant’s leadership

and excellent organisational skills

prevailed, and many were saved.

Dunant documented these

experiences in a book (A Memoir of

Solferino, published in 1862), which

led in the following year to formation

of a committee later called the

International Committee of the Red

Cross. In 1864, 12 countries influenced

and encouraged by Dunant met to

sign the first Geneva Convention.

Dunant’s vision of founding a

neutral organisation to offer medical

assistance in situations of armed

conflict has proved to be one of the

ideas that have changed the world.

For this, he was awarded the Nobel

Jean Henri Dunant | 43

Peace Prize in 1901.

Although Dunant’s company

went bankrupt in 1867, he continued

to advocate for his humanitarian

ideas and plans. He appealed for

disarmament and for founding of a

tribunal to mediate in international

conflicts. He worked to develop

an international library – an idea

later taken up by UNESCO – and

campaigned for the establishing of a

Jewish state in Palestine.

Jean Henri Dunant suffered from a

number of health problems and spent

the last years of his life in a hospital

in the town of Heiden, Switzerland.

Before his death, he gave all the

money he had left to endow a ‘free

bed’ for poor patients in that hospital.

Cristian Zaharia

catherine and william Booth(1829-1890) (1829-1912)

founders of the reLIgIous humAnItArIAn orgAnIsAtIon sALvAtIon Army

William and Catherine Booth,

a British couple, were Methodist

missionaries involved in helping

poor and marginalised people.

They founded the Salvation Army,

organised along military lines, which

today is one of the humanitarian

organisations represented most

widely around the world.

William Booth came from a rich

family whose business had gone

bankrupt. After being converted

during his time of apprenticeship

in a pawnbroker’s shop, he began

to preach the Gospel to the poor of

Nottingham.

Catherine Booth came from a

family which gave her a thorough

Christian education. She had read

the Bible eight times by age 12. As an

adolescent, she became involved in

the fight against effects of alcoholism

(especially domestic violence and

neglect) and published many articles

on the subject. When William and

Catherine married, they organised

a modest wedding so that money

available for them could instead be

used to help the poor.

One night, when William could

not sleep, he went out for a walk

and ended up in an outlying part of

town, where he saw people sleeping

on pavement. He returned home and

said to his wife, ‘I have been in hell!’

Within a short time the two of them

had founded the organisation later

called the Salvation Army (1878).

Convinced that poverty was

rooted in the values and beliefs by

which people lived, and equally

convinced of the change that

Christianity could bring about, the

Booths addressed their efforts to the

poor and needy. William preached in

streets and areas of town in which

there were more public houses than

shops, while Catherine, in spite of

conventions of the time discouraging

women from speaking in public, gave

addresses at women’s meetings,

worked with young people and

visited those dependent on alcohol.

The Booths’ love for others and their

Catherine and William Booth | 45

rejection of contemporary notions

that the poor ‘deserved their lot’

motivated their efforts, even after

William repeatedly came home cut

and bruised from stones thrown at

him as he was preaching in the slums.

One day walking along the street,

Catherine saw a drunkard being taken

off to prison by a policeman. Passers-

by jeered. Indignant, Catherine began

walking alongside the man to show

him that someone was interested in

what happened to him.

Later, she and William founded

a counselling centre for alcoholics

and a refuge for poor people who

were sleeping on the streets, and

gathered funds to help criminals

and prostitutes. They also started

the Food for a Million programme,

providing soup and bread to the poor

for a penny, or for nothing at all if they

had no money.

In the last days of his life, William

Booth was asked what message he

had for the soldiers of the Salvation

Army. He replied: ‘Others’, underlining

again that a real Christian must always

help those around by all means

available.

Cristian Zaharia

eva von tiele-winckler(1866 – 1930)

LutherAn deAconess; founder of frIedenshort, A sheLter for AbAndoned chILdren, sIck And eLderLy peopLe

Eva von Tiele-Winckler, known as

Mother Eva, was born in 1866 into a

wealthy family who had a castle on

the Polish-German border.

Even as a child she felt called to

help the poor and needy. Although

she belonged to the aristocracy, Eva

did not consider it beneath her to

cook food for the poor and share

it amongst them. One day a dirty,

hungry little boy came to the castle.

Eva washed him and made him a

pair of trousers out of an old dress of

hers. When her father found out what

she had done, he became angry and

forbade her to go into the kitchen or

to talk to inhabitants of the nearby

village. But in her heart Eva began to

trust in God more deeply.

At age 19 Eva went to Bielefeld

to take a course in nursing. Upon

returning home she was allowed

to invite eight young girls to the

castle and teach them sewing and

handicrafts. Her father’s attitude

gradually softened, so much so that

his Christmas present to her in 1888

was the plan of a house to be called

Friedenshort (Home of Peace).

As soon as the new house was

opened, Mother Eva began her social

outreach. Sick children, abandoned

babies, elderly people and invalids

without family support all found

refuge and comfort at Friedenshort.

In the years that followed, Eva,

under the guidance of Pastor Friedrich

von Bodelschwingh and with the

agreement of her father, founded a

community of deaconesses, whom

she trained for different kinds of social

work. The Friedenshort project soon

expanded, with construction of two

more buildings, one for the incurably

sick and the other for children.

In 1910 Eva founded in Breslau

her first children’s home. Heimat

für Heimatlose (Home for the

Homeless), which expanded until

the organisation maintained 40

such homes, developed from this

beginning.

Eva also established ‘family

homes’, in which 10-15 children of

Eva von Tiele-Winckler | 47

different ages were brought up and

educated in a family setting, often led

by a nurse.

Between 1910 and 1923, more

than 14,000 children found a family

in these homes. The number of

deaconesses grew to 800. The

Friedenshort project was from the

beginning characterised by absence

of denominational boundaries,

leading to further development and

mission work.

Eva von Tiele-Winckler’s

concern extended to prisoners,

initially through a prison visitation

programme and later by establishing

homes in which ex-prisoners could be

helped to reintegrate into society.

Mother Eva died in 1930 in

Miechowitz, Poland, after a life

devoted to the service of the poor,

the sick and the destitute.

Adina Petric

Bl. Zeffirino JimeneZ mala(1861 – 1936)

gypsy mArtyr, executed for defendIng A prIest who wAs mALtreAted

Zeffirino Jiminez Mala, later

nicknamed ‘El Pelé’, was born at

Benavènt de Segrià in Spain on 26

August 1861. He was baptised a

Catholic at Fraga where his parents

Giovanni and Giuseppa, who were

travellers, were staying for a time. He

started going out begging from his

earliest years, just like any gypsy child

of his age.

One of his descendants recalled of

him: ‘He was not easily frightened. He

would intervene fearlessly to uphold

the right when it was necessary. He

lived according to gypsy law, by force

and justice’. He was not a racist. He was

a kind of bridge between two worlds,

that of the travelling or migratory

gypsy communities and that of

people groups who stayed within one

area. He had a gift for embracing the

best aspects of both types of cultures.

As well, ‘El Pelé’ possessed a special

love for children, helped the poor and

needy, and visited the elderly and the

sick.

‘El Pelé’ married at age 18 in

accordance with gypsy law. He and

his wife, Tereza, had no children, and

adopted her niece, Pepita. He lived

the life of a traveller until he was 40,

and although he dealt in horses he

was an honest man. At age 50, after

32 years of gypsy-style matrimony,

he and Tereza celebrated a Christian

wedding.

One day Zeffirino came across

a man suffering from TB who was

lying on the ground where he had

collapsed. Everyone else was walking

around him, but Zeffirino overcame

his fear of contamination and

hastened to help him.

On another occasion, a young

mother was unable to breastfeed her

child. El Pelé gave her money every

day so that she could buy milk. Anyone

who did not have a beast of burden

to carry his produce to market would

speak to El Pelé, who consistently

replied, ‘Go into my stable and take

whichever animal you like. You can

pay me when you get your money at

the end of seasonal work’.

Bl. Zeffirino Jimenez Mala | 49

Zeffirino often visited old people

and the sick. He went daily to a home

for the severely disabled. He belonged

to the Fellowship of St. Vincent

de Paul, a charitable organisation

devoted to the relief of the poor.

Beggars were taken to his room

and fed. He spoke to children about

Jesus, and in the evenings he invited

families into his house and would

kneel down and pray with them.

When people were arguing,

Zeffirino worked to bring about

reconciliation. He had a special gift

for taking the heat out of arguments

between gypsies or between gypsies

and the local non-gypsy population.

People would run to him and invite

him to bring about a fair resolution of

conflicts.

Towards the end of his life he

prayed daily, at home, in the street, at

the old people’s home, in prisons.

In 1936 Zeffirino was arrested and

condemned to death for taking up

the cause of a priest who had been

maltreated [by anti-Catholic elements

during the Spanish Civil War]. On 9

August that year he was executed in

the cemetery at Barbastro. On his way

to execution he kept shouting, ‘Long

live Christ the King!’.

On 4 May 1997, Zeffirino Jiménez

Malla was beatified by Pope John Paul

II, and is celebrated by the Catholic

Church on 4 May.

Marcelin Blaj

st. dimitri klePinin (1904 – 1944)

A ‘rIghteous Amongst the nAtIons’ who sAved mAny Jews from sure deAth durIng the second worLd wAr

Dimitri Klepinin was a priest, a

Russian émigré living in France, who

saved many Jews from death during

the Second World War. The Yad

Veshem Jewish memorial foundation

in Jerusalem gave him the title of

‘righteous Gentile’ in 1984.

Dimitri was born in Pyatigorsk

in Russia, into a family with three

children. His father was an architect

and his mother did charitable work

for the poor. After the Bolshevik coup

d’etat of 1917, the Klepinin family left

Russia, settling first in Constantinople

and subsequently in Yugoslavia.

At age 19, Dimitri tragically lost his

mother and, in his own words, found

in Jesus Christ his only light and

consolation. In 1925 he embarked

upon theological studies in Paris,

and after graduating, was awarded

a scholarship to the Protestant

Theological Seminary in New York.

Returning to Europe, he worked in

Yugoslavia before settling in France,

where he married and was ordained

priest in 1937.

Two years later he was sent to

serve as chaplain of the guest house

founded in Paris by his compatriot

Maria Skobtsova. During the Nazi

occupation, he took part in resistance

efforts of the Orthodox Action

movement and hid many Jewish

families, prisoners of war, and other

people being hunted by the Nazis.

Jews came to Father Klepinin

asking for baptism certificates that

might prevent them from being

persecuted by the Nazis. Although

many of these Jews were not

converting to Christianity, and were

not actually being baptised, Father

Klepinin gave them the life-saving

pieces of paper.

In 1943 Klepinin was arrested by

the Nazis and interrogated by the

Gestapo. An officer asked him, ‘If

we let you go, will you promise not

to help the Jews any more?’. Father

Klepinin replied, ‘I cannot make such

a promise. I am a Christian and I must

do what I must’. Annoyed, the officer

shouted at him, ‘Jew-lover!’. Then

St. Dimitri Klepinin | 51

Dimitri calmly lifted up the crucifix he

wore around his neck and showed it

to the officer, saying quietly, ‘Do you

know this Jew?’. Infuriated, the officer

shouted, ‘You’ve pronounced your

own condemnation!’.

Together with Yuri Skobtsov, Sister

Maria’s son, Dimitri was deported to

Buchenwald concentration camp in

Germany and later to the camp at

Dora, where he died of pneumonia in

the winter of 1944, four days after Yuri

had also died.

The Russian Orthodox Church

celebrates him on 20 July.

Monica Zaharia

st. maria skoBtsova (1891- 1945)

member of the french resIstAnce movement; protector of refugees And of Jews persecuted by nAZIs

Maria Skobstova was a poet, a

nun and a member of the French

Resistance during the Second World

War. She gave shelter and help to

Russian refugees in France and to

Jews experiencing persecution

during the Nazi occupation.

She was born into a noble family

in Latvia (then in the Russian Empire)

and was baptised Elizaveta. Deeply

affected by the death of her father,

she questioned the meaning of life

and sought answers in the theories

of revolutionary socialism, without

finding anything that satisfied her.

She found more satisfying answers

in Christianity and decided to study

at the Theological Institute in St

Petersburg.

When the Bolshevik regime came

to power in Russia in 1917, Elizaveta

emigrated to France. There she

experienced the painful loss of one

of her three children. In 1930, she was

appointed secretary of the Russian

Christian Students’ Movement

and came into contact with large

numbers of Russian refugees in

France. In helping them, she laid the

foundations of a community in which

those in need could receive shelter,

care and also spiritual support.

Elizaveta became a nun in 1932

and took the name Sister Maria.

Instead of retiring to a convent, she

involved herself in society and a

profession of ‘monasticism in the

world’. She founded a guest house

with a dining room, a chapel and a

room for reading and discussions.

Guests outgrew the building, so the

hostel moved to the famous Rue de

Lourmel, with room for 100 people

to be fed and housed. Over time,

more buildings were rented, one for

families and one for single men, and

a farm in the country was converted

into a sanatorium.

Sister Maria House was not only

a home for the needy, but also an

ideal venue for discussions. Here

the elite of the Russian intellectuals

in Paris gathered to debate faith

and social problems of the day. In

St. Maria Skobtsova | 53

1935 these discussions led to the

Orthodox Action movement, aiming

to implement principles of the Gospel

in the life of society.

During the Nazi occupation of

Paris, Maria, together with her son

Yuri and with Dimitri Klepinin, priest

of the Rue de Lourmel chapel, took in

large numbers of Jews facing arrest

and transportation to concentration

camps. In July 1942, thousands of

Jews had been brought together

in a stadium from where they were

to be sent to different camps. Maria

and some garbage disposal men

succeeded in saving a number of

children by concealing them in

garbage bins. Sister Maria helped

Father Klepinin provide baptism

certificates to conceal Jewish

identities, insisting, ‘I believe that the

good Christ would give me this piece

of paper if I were in their position.

Therefore I must do the same. […] At

all times the Church has been a refuge

for all those who have fallen victim to

barbarism’.

In 1943 Sister Maria was arrested

by the Nazis and charged with being

a ‘Jew-lover’. After spending two years

in the Ravensbrück concentration

camp in Germany, she died in the gas

chambers, a few weeks before the

end of the war.

She is celebrated by the Russian

Orthodox Church on 20 July.

Monica Zaharia

dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945)

LutherAn pAstor And theoLogIAn; opponent of the nAZI regIme In germAny

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is highly

regarded as a martyr of modern

times. He was a theologian, a

Lutheran pastor and opponent of

the Nazi regime in Germany. While

hounded and imprisoned by the

Nazis, he wrote numerous books and

letters about authentic living-out of

the Christian faith that continue to

influence new generations. Although

Bonhoeffer could have kept silent or

gone into exile, he preferred to risk

his life by joining compatriots in the

struggle against Nazism.

Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau

in present-day Poland in 1906,

into the family of a well-known

psychiatrist and a highly educated,

devout mother. When Adolf Hitler

came to power in 1933, many in

Bonhoeffer’s family became activitists

on behalf of those marginalised

and oppressed by the Nazis, at a

time when most other Christians

acquiesced to increasingly terrifying

political realities. Bonhoeffer showed

his opposition openly by drawing

people’s attention to the dangers of

following an unrighteous leader. He

was part of the nucleus of a Christian

group known as Die Bekennende

Gemeinde (the Confessing Church),

which condemned Nazi doctrine and

practice. He stated in sermons and

public lectures that the way Jews

were being treated was an attack on

civil liberties. As a protest against the

injustice suffered by colleagues who

did not belong to the ‘Aryan race’, he

refused a position in a parish in Berlin

and chose rather to go to London,

where he served in a German-

speaking church giving assistance

to large numbers of Christian and

Jewish refugees.

Some of Bonhoeffer’s

contemporaries accused him of

giving up the fight against Nazism

by moving to England, but in fact

he carried on the struggle at an

international level. Speaking on the

subject of peace at an ecumenical

conference in Denmark, he startled

hearers by saying, ‘We must be daring

Dietrich Bonhoeffer | 55

in our pursuit of peace; now that’s the

great adventure!’.

He returned to Germany and

taught theology for two years at

Finkenwalde Seminary. When this

institution of the Die Bekennende

Gemeinde protesting Christians was

shut down, Bonhoeffer continued to

write and participate in the Resistance

movement, taking part in operations

to rescue groups of Jews.

In 1939 Bonhoeffer was invited

to teach at a theological seminary in

the United States. He accepted, but

returned to Germany after a short

time, stating he would rather endure

the sufferings of war alongside his

compatriots. He chose this despite

the fact that the Gestapo had, a year

earlier, banned him from Berlin. From

autumn 1940 onwards he was no

longer permitted to speak in public.

Although he held pacifist

convictions, Bonhoeffer came to

believe that it is more righteous to

take part in eliminating evil than

to stand by passively despite its

consequences. He became involved

in the 1943 plot, devised by a number

of members of the Abwehr (German

military intelligence) to assassinate

Hitler. This led to his arrest and

incarceration in Floessenburg Prison.

Bonhoeffer’s role in the plot had been

that of a courier and intermediary

between the plotters and the British

government.

Three weeks before the end of the

war, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged

on direct orders from Hitler himself.

Adina Petric

fr. dumitru sandu-matei (1913 – 1951)

romAn cAthoLIc prIest; AntIcommunIst mArtyr And ApostLe to the poor

The first half of the 20th century

was a time of great suffering,

particularly resulting from the two

world wars. Dumitru Sandu-Matei

was born at Sărata in Bacău county,

Romania, on 28 July 1913 into a family

of land workers. After graduating

from seminary in Iaşi, the chief city

of north-eastern Romania, he was

ordained priest in 1939. He worked at

the Catholic cathedral in Iaşi, and was

reported to be loved and esteemed

by all.

Father Matei became renowned

as ‘an apostle to the poor’. Other

members of his community said he

put all he possessed at the disposal

of the poor. His motive for such

generosity was that he saw Jesus in

the poor.

In the first years of the Second

World War, he offered spiritual help

to soldiers at the front. After the

war, he was appointed chaplain to

wounded soldiers in hospitals and

was responsible for handling and

distributing aid received from abroad

for the starving. He also set up a

students’ canteen in Iaşi.

He provided prisoners with

medicine, clothes and food. During

1946-1948 he helped a large number

of German prisoners to escape from

the camps and hospitals of Iaşi. Many

people were asked to take prisoners

into their homes. Mihai Gheorghiu of

Iaşi has stated that Father Matei more

than once asked him to host former

German prisoners in his own house.

Dr. Rozalia Iosub, also of Iaşi, similarly

testified that she hid a number of

fugitives in her house at Father Matei’s

request.

From 1939 to 1944, Father Matei

published a number of articles on

history, spirituality, and religious

knowledge. His reports from the front,

where he was providing spiritual

support to the wounded in military

hospitals, make moving reading. He

was convinced of the importance of

the press, of seminaries, of schools

and of voluntary associations in

the times in which he lived. He

Fr. Dumitru Sandu-Matei | 57

campaigned for extending the role

of elementary school teachers in the

education of young people and for

the development of schools.

When the communist regime

came to power in Romania, many

students organised themselves

against it. Father Dumitru became

their mentor. One student, Liviu-

Coca Mărgineanu, described the

priest as having become the central

figure of this group seeking for ways

and means of opposing communist

activities.

After being forced to hide from

authorities in various places, Father

Dumitru withdrew to Bucharest,

where he was arrested. He was

charged with the crime of high

treason and condemned to death.

Execution by firing squad was carried

out on 21 February 1951 in the prison

at Jilava.

Father Dumitru Sandu-Matei has

gone down in history as an apostle to

the poor and oppressed, but also as a

modern martyr who did not hesitate

to lay down his life for the sake of his

Lord and his brothers.

Marcelin Blaj

martin luther kinG, Jr. (1929 – 1968)

the mAn who hAd A dreAm; opponent of rAcIAL segregAtIon And LeAder of the AmerIcAn movement for cIvIL rIghts

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one

of the most significant opponents

of racial segregation in the United

States of America. He advocated

social change through direct but non-

violent action.

He was born in Atlanta, Georgia,

into a family of Baptist pastors. He

studied theology, and in 1955, after

marrying, he achieved a doctorate in

theology.

On 1st December 1955 a

significant incident took place in

Montgomery, Alabama, the town

where Dr. King was serving as a pastor,

a. A black seamstress, Rosa Parks, who

was sitting on a seat in the front row

of the a part of a bus reserved for

blacks, and refused to give up her

seat to a white man. This meant that

she was breaking the Alabama’s racial

segregation laws, she was arrested.

on racial segregation on buses, and

she was arrested. Although such

incidents were nothing unusual, but

on this occasion the members of the

black population decided to assert

their right to be treated with dignity,

and so the Montgomery Bus Boycott

was launched.

Martin Luther King was chosen

as the leader of the boycott and

succeeded in making a non-violent

protest. Even when his house was

set on fire and his family’s lives put in

peril, he had the strength to declare

to the fellow-members of his ethnic

community: ‘We will not be able to

resolve this problem if we respond

to violence with violence (…). We

will respond to violence with non-

violence. Think of the words of Jesus:

‘He who draws the sword will perish

by the sword’. Jesus calls to us now

across the centuries, ‘Love your

enemies!’ That is what we need to live

out’.

As a direct consequence of this

protest, the US Supreme Court

declared the Alabama’s law on racial

segregation to be unconstitutional

(December 1956), and the buses in

Montgomery were desegregated.

In the years that followed, Dr. King

Martin Luther King, Jr. | 59

was involved in starting the Southern

Christian Leaders’ Conference and

supported the Student Committee

for the Co-ordination of Non-

Violence. He was also involved in

the Albany Civil Rights movement

and organised a demonstration in

favour of black rights in Birmingham,

Alabama. This ended in clashes

between demonstrators and police,

and received publicity all around the

world. The numerous demonstrations

which followed, this one culminating

in the March on Washington in 1963,

at the end of which Dr. King delivered

his famous “‘I Have A Dream”’ speech

from the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial. This speech earned him a

place amongst the greatest orators in

US history.

Time magazine named King ‘Man

of the Year’ for in 1963, and his efforts

to change the world by peaceful

means brought him international

recognition in 1964, when he became

the youngest ever recipient of the

Nobel Peace Prize.

From 1967 onwards, Dr. King was a

public critic of US military intervention

in Vietnam. He initiated the Campaign

for the Poor. On 3 April 3 1968, the day

before he was assassinated, Dr. King

took part in a strike by black workers

in Memphis. There, he made his last

speech, ‘I Have Been to the Top of the

Mountain’.

Cristian Zaharia

oscar romero (1917 – 1980)

‘the voIce of the voIceLess’; mArtyr of the struggLe for socIAL And poLItIcAL JustIce In eL sALvAdor

Oscar Romero was a 20th-century

Roman Catholic archbishop who

worked tirelessly for social justice and

in defence of human rights.

He was born on 15 March 1917

in Ciudad Barrios, a small town in El

Salvador. He grew up to become ‘the

voice of those who have no voice’.

El Salvador was a country in

turmoil. After coffee-growing was

introduced in 1828, peasants were

thoroughly exploited and their pay

was derisory. El Salvador increasingly

became a police state, in which

respect for human rights no longer

existed. An impoverished, suffering

population longed for justice – but

anyone who said anything about

justice was thrown into prison or

killed.

In this context, Oscar grew up

desiring to become a priest. He left his

hometown at age 14 and headed for

San Miguele, where he would have

opportunity to follow his vocation.

After some years, he was able to

attend the Gregorian Pontifical

University in Rome, where in 1943 he

gained his degree in theology.

Oscar became a priest and

returned to San Salvador. In February

1977, as El Salvador was in the grip of

social and political repression, Oscar

Romero became Archbishop of San

Salvador.

Nomination of Romero as

Archbishop of San Salvador caused

no anxiety amongst political

leadership, since it was believed that

he was a very reserved person. No

one imagined that he would be likely

to publicly criticise actions of the

government or the army.

Oscar carried on his work in the

accustomed way, like any pastor

of souls, until everything changed

overnight when his good friend

Father Rutilio Grande was killed. At a

liturgy being celebrated in front of the

cathedral before a crowd of 100,000,

Archbishop Romero denounced the

government, accusing El Salvador’s

leaders of injustice and of committing

crimes against the population. He

Oscar Romero | 61

likewise condemned all human rights

violations.

In a letter to the nation’s president,

Romero expressed his desire for

peace: ‘Peace is not a product of

terror and fear, it is not the silence of

the graveyard, it is not the quiet that

results from violent repression. Peace

is the generous, calm contribution of

all towards the common good. Peace

is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is

a right and a duty’.

Romero’s opposition to the

rampant murders in El Salvador and

his condemnation of the reign of terror

made him extremely vulnerable. On

24 March 1980, the archbishop was

assassinated as he celebrated Mass in

the cathedral in San Salvador.

Those fighting for human

dignity and for justice continue to

draw inspiration from Archbishop

Romero’s courageous life and from

his death. Although he has not been

canonised yet, he is popularly hailed

as ‘St. Romero of America’ on every

anniversary of his death.

Maricel Bulai

Bl. maica tereZa of calcutta (1910 – 1997)

founder of the order of the mIssIonArIes of chArIty; nobeL peAce prIZe LAureAte

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later

known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta,

was born in Skopje, now in Macedonia

but at that time part of Albania, on 26

August 1910.

Mother Teresa is one of the best-

known and best-loved women of

all time, because of the way she

devoted her entire life to suffering

people. She was particularly drawn

to the sick (especially the dying and

lepers), abandoned children, unborn

children, and the poor.

Mother Teresa entered the

convent of Loreto at age 18, then

went to Calcutta in India, where she

devoted herself to the poorest of

the poor – the sick. She founded the

Order of the Missionaries of Charity,

which today cares for more than one

million sick people in its 200 centres.

More than 50,000 lepers are housed

and attended to in the order’s 50

leper settlements.

Barefoot or in sandals, Mother

Teresa wore her recognisable white

habit with its blue border stripe,

her face lined with wrinkles, as she

travelled the whole world in the

cause of suffering people. She first

demonstrated her love for the sick

and poor on the day she picked up

from the streets a woman who was at

the point of death with mice and ants

gnawing at her body.

Years later, an American journalist

who saw her washing a sick person

with terrible sores said to her: ‘I

wouldn’t do that for a million dollars’.

‘Neither would I’, replied Mother

Teresa. ‘For a million dollars, no, but

for the love of Christ, yes, and joyfully’.

Mother Teresa spoke vehemently

for pro-life causes. She strongly

opposed abortion and divorce laws

that sacrificed children’s interests to

adults’ follies, thus making herself

unpopular with many people.

In 1994 she declared in

Washington DC, in a gathering of

American dignitaries, that abortion

was the greatest problem of our day:

‘Don’t kill little children! I appeal to all

the mothers of the world: if you don’t

Bl. Maica Tereza of Calcutta | 63

want your child, give it to me… I want

it! That’s why I have adopted over

3,000 children in Calcutta’.

When she accepted the

Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on 10

December 1979, she said, ‘In this,

the International Year of the Child, I

address you in the name of unborn

children’. And when she spoke with

King Olaf VI of Norway, she cried out,

‘Your Majesty, I repeat, abortion is a

form of assassination!’.

Mother Teresa earned

innumerable awards for her activism,

especially in promotion of peace.

She died on 5 September 1997,

following a heart attack. On 19

October 2003 Mother Teresa was

beatified by Pope John Paul II and is

celebrated by the Catholic Church on

5 September.

Marcelin Blaj

richard wurmBrand (1909 – 2001)

LutherAn pAstor; defender of chrIstIAns persecuted by communIst regImes

Richard Wurmbrand earned the

name ‘the Apostle Paul of the Iron

Curtain’ as one of the most striking

preachers of the 20th century who

fought to defend the rights of

persecuted Christians.

Wurmbrand was born into a

Jewish family in Bucharest, capital

of Romania, in 1909. As a young

man he was attracted by the

communist movement, but soon

realised its promises eclipsed reality.

Wurmbrand’s life was transformed

after he met a carpenter who gave

him a Bible. His reading of Scripture

and the experience of meeting other

believers led to his conversion to the

Christian faith.

During the Second World War,

Wurmbrand undertook covert

missionary work and helped many

Jews to survive. He also preached in

numerous air raid shelters and was

arrested a number of times.

Wurmbrand continued his

missionary activities even after

communists came to power in

Romania, although he knew

authorities regarded what he was

doing as illegal. He was arrested by

communist authorities in February

1948. For eight years he was held in

solitary confinement under a false

name. At first authorities said he had

fled the country, but later a number

of agents posing as former detainees

suggested to his family that he had

died in prison. Wurmbrand was freed

in 1956, but two years later was

imprisoned again, this time for six

years.

Pastor Wurmbrand was finally

released in 1964 in a general amnesty

of prisoners and settled in the United

States with his family. While in

Philadelphia, he happened to pass a

public demonstration in support of

the communist regime in Vietnam.

The demonstration was suddenly

interrupted by an unknown person

who claimed to have a doctorate in

Communism. As he spoke, he showed

the crowd scars on his chest and back

as evidence of the torture to which

Richard Wurmbrand | 65

he had been subjected. Then the

stranger – no other than Wurmbrand

–exhorted those present to side with

the victims and not with the torturers.

Later, Wurmbrand gave evidence

before the US Senate Committee on

Internal Security. As a result, news

of the atrocities Christians were

suffering in communist countries

spread throughout the world.

While in America, Wurmbrand

founded Voice of the Martyrs, an

organisation documenting and

advocating against persecution of

Christians by communist and other

oppressive regimes anywhere in the

world.

Richard Wurmbrand died in 2001.

His legacy – alongside his Christian

testimony and his books – can be

summed up in his own words: ‘In all

that I have suffered alongside my

brethren in the faith, it is Jesus Christ

alone that I want to be seen. He is the

one who kept us in the faith and gave

us the power to be victorious’.

Adina Petric

desmond tutu (born 1931)

fIghter AgAInst ApArtheId In south AfrIcA; reconcILer of nAtIons

Desmond Tutu was born into

a poor family in South Africa. As a

result of the government’s policy of

apartheid (separateness), according

to which those with black skin were

considered inferior to other people

and therefore kept apart from the

rest of society, South Africa’s black

population were forced to live in

ghettoes under tight restrictions.

Their sole function under this

government was to provide cheap

labour.

Desmond became a teacher like his

father, but when a law passed setting

even lower standards of education for

the coloured population, he resigned

from his post and devoted himself to

theological studies. He was ordained

an Anglican priest in 1960. Some

years later, when he returned to his

native land after studying in England

on scholarship, South Africa faced

impending civil war, and Desmond

Tutu decided that the time for change

had come. He held increasingly

important positions in the Church – he

was Bishop of Lesotho, then the first

black Secretary-General of the South

African Council of Churches, and

finally Archbishop of Cape Town. By

position, and by his eloquent, resolute

opposition to apartheid, Archbishop

Tutu represented the cause of the

oppressed to the international

community and advocated change

through non-violent means.

Many people knew Archbishop

Tutu as a humble man of small

stature who, by his stance of faith and

courage, and armed only with a Bible,

opposed the forces of a repressive

government. He took the role of

peacemaker on the bloody streets

of South Africa and worked for ‘a

just, democratic society, free of racial

segregation’.

After a massacre carried out in a

Johannesburg township by security

forces, Archbishop Tutu stood alone

in the streets, ruined buildings all

around him, and encouraged people

with the words: ‘Do not hate; let us

choose the peaceful path to freedom’.

Desmond Tutu | 67

Although apartheid had been

recognised as a crime against

humanity as far back as 1973, it

was only brought down when the

international community imposed

economic and political sanctions on

South Africa in response to Archbishop

Tutu’s urgings. He thus earned the

nickname ‘Mr Sanctions’. In 1984 he

was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in

recognition of his involvement in the

non-violent campaign for the rights

of black people.

Desmond Tutu also played

an important role after the

dismantling of the apartheid system,

becoming Chairman of the Truth

and Reconciliation Commission

and bringing to it a Christian

understanding of making peace with

the past through confession and

forgiveness of wrongs: ‘We cannot

be superficial’, he said, ‘and bury the

past, because the past cannot be

buried but will always pursue us.

True reconciliation is never cheap,

because it is based on forgiveness,

which is costly. And forgiveness in its

turn is based on repentance, which

has to be founded on a recognition

of wrongs committed and thus

on open statement of the truth.

Something that is not known cannot

be forgiven…’.

Cristian Zaharia

afterword‘the Lord Looked And wAs dIspLeAsed thAt there wAs no JustIce. he sAw thAt there wAs no one, he wAs AppALLed thAt there wAs no one to Intervene’. IsAIAh 59:16

The MinisTry of JusTice

Have you ever been distressed

by an injustice you wished you could

fight? Have you longed to challenge

some form of darkness in your town,

or country or even another part of the

world? Have you seen evil triumph

over good, yet knew there was a

better way? Have you thought it was

possible that God, too, was grieved?

Have you considered that fighting for

justice, inspired by faith, might be a

ministry? For 2,000 years, Christians

have felt the same way, and inspired

by their love of God, changed their

world in some small or large way.

If you let yourself, you might be

inspired to do impossible things

to His glory. You could fight social

cruelties as an expression of your

faith. If you trust this stirring and do

not turn away, you will be equipped.

You will be given power and courage

and hope and vision to do impossible

things. The world is groaning for

people like you to say a simple but

transforming ‘Yes’.

As this book shows, two millennia

of Christians have believed and acted

– they challenged oppression and

triumphed over the odds. Since the

birth of our faith, Christians have

engaged in practical justice work

which changed societies. The work

is endless, as is the list of their heroic

accomplishments. To name a few

monumental efforts: defending the

‘underground’ church during times

of oppression throughout Eastern

Europe; ending the slave trade in

the 1800s; challenging child labour

in ‘sweat shop’ factories; establishing

hospitals and schools for the poor;

and fighting against tyranny.

Yet this is not just ancient history.

You are living in a transformational

time when people of faith are

increasingly engaging in human

rights and social reforms. Consider

these practical opportunities in your

own backyard or larger world:

• Petitioning and organising on

behalf of 27 million people,

Afterword | 69

including children and youths,

trapped in human trafficking,

which is modern-day slavery

involving extreme labour and

sexual exploitation.

• Aiding refugees and Internal

Displaced Persons (IDPs)

desperately escaping conflicts.

• Organising citizen voices for

better governance and services.

• Fighting corruption.

• Challenging practices such as

child begging rings and providing

alternatives for a better life.

• Giving disabled children

the right to attend school,

escaping oftentimes terrible

marginalisation and loneliness.

• Defending orphaned children.

The Bible says this is true

religion: setting free the oppressed

and captives, breaking the yoke,

and proclaiming freedom for the

prisoners.

Isaiah 58: 6: “Is this not the kind

of fasting I have chosen: To loose the

chains of injustice, and untie the cords

of the yoke, To set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?”

In the New Testament, Jesus states

in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is

on me, because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor. He

has sent me to proclaim freedom for

the prisoners and recovery of sight for

the blind, to release the oppressed, to

proclaim the year of the Lord’s favou.”

Principled acts by individuals are

making a difference. Such people are

a living reminder that ‘true religion’

according to the Gospels is serving

the poorest amongst us and setting

the captives free. Numbers of activists

are growing while governments

across the globe are responding,

many genuinely changing policies

and practices. This is the ripest time

yet for challenging institutions of

injustice worldwide according to

the biblical admonition to ‘set the

captives free’.

If you desire to take the next steps,

first of all, pray for guidance. Second,

you are not limited by your age, young

or old. Allow yourself to start small,

where you are, and grow from there.

Consider studying law, social work,

or international development. Join

a secular or Christian organisation

doing good work. Become familiar

with several notable websites,

including the ones listed below. Read

books on Christian justice work such

as Good News About Injustice by Gary

Haugen. Talk to your church leader

about forming a youth group to help

the neediest people in your town.

Opportunities are limited only

by your imagination. Walk this path

knowing there is a way for you to

make a difference as an expression of

your faith in a troubled world.

suggesTed websiTes

• World Vision International,

Eastern Europe:

http://meero.worldvision.org

• International Justice Mission:

www.ijm.org

• Stop the Traffik:

www.stopthetraffik.org

• Human Rights Watch:

www.hrw.org

• Amnesty International:

www.amnesty.org

• International Crisis Group:

www.crisisgroup.org

Afterword | 71

for furTher sTudy

Reflect on Psalm 72: 12-14 “He

will deliver the needy who cry out,

the afflicted who have no one to

help. He will take pity on the weak

and the needy and save the needy

from death. He will rescue them from

oppression and violence, for precious

is their blood in his sight”.

• Think about the meaning of this

passage which states that God

is moved by compassion for the

weak and oppressed.

• Who are the oppressed and

needy in your town?

• What are some practical next

steps you could take?

Sharon Payt

© 2010 World Vision International. All rights reserved.Adoramus PublishersIași, Romaniawww.adoramus.ro

‘At the LAst Judgment, I wILL not be Asked whether I sAtIsfActorILy prActIced AscetIcIsm, or how mAny genufLectIons I hAve mAde before the dIvIne ALtAr. I wILL be Asked whether I fed the hungry, cLothed the nAked, vIsIted the sIck And the prIsoner In hIs JAIL. thAt Is ALL thAt wILL be Asked’.

st. mArIA skobtsovA