Our approach focuses on the memoirs written after being in prison, whose authors knew Dumitru Stăniloae in the communist prison. On such grounds, we analyze the way father Stăniloae bore the communist detention, especially in Aiud, between May 1959 and October 1960, and March 1962 and January 1963, respectively. We cite a few texts which refer to Stăniloae and we even tried to corroborate them with other sources, in order to accurately distinguish between the authors` subjectivity (which comes only natural in such instances) and the objectivity which helps us rebuild the father`s way in prison. We focused on the texts cited in the article following a survey in the detention literature, whose authors might have met father Stăniloae in the Aiud prison. Our analysis reveals that father Stăniloae remains in the conscience of the former political prisoners as a magister of theology, a professor with rare didactic abilities, and a profound minister. Even during the Aiud re-education, Stăniloae distinguished himself as a defender of the Church and a guiding spirit towards the true way of faith.

Keywords: prison, communism, confessions, re-education, faith

ADRIAN NICOLAE PETCU