ABSTRACT
The text examines the transnational dimension of the “prison saints’ movement” that emerged within contemporary Romania's post-communist legionary and fundamentalist milieus. Father Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, a former member of the Iron Guard during the 1940s, sought refuge in the United States in the 1980s as a political refugee and propagated a narrative of fascist martyrdom. He depicted deceased legionaries who had been incarcerated during the Communist regime as Orthodox martyr-saints in Orthodox publications in the United States. Upon the downfall of the Communist regime in 1989, Calciu-Dumitreasa transferred his ideology from the United States to Romania. The text also delves into Calciu-Dumitreasa's collaboration with Romanian fascists, who were Orthodox clergymen in the Romanian Orthodox Church, aimed at forging a cohesive fascist hagiography and integrating legionary martyrs into the official hagiography of the church. Posthumously, in 2009, he became the subject of hagiography, representing the experiences of legionaries within the Romanian diaspora.
