ABSTRACT
Under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu (1965–1989), Romania could claim only a handful of dissidents who were courageous enough to openly and publicly defy the communist authorities. Of those outspoken few, only a handful were clergy members. By far the most important of them was Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa (1925–2006, known as Gheorghe Calciu), an Orthodox priest whose heart-felt Seven Words for the Youth landed him in prison for engaging in anti-communist dissidence. Besides incurring the wrath of the state authorities, Calciu was further persecuted by the hierarchs, fellow priests and theology teachers representing his Orthodox Church, which defrocked rather than protected him.
