During the Soviet occupation, the religious life in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina underwent a persecution similar to the one in Russia between the two World Wars. In the first days of occupation, certain population groups welcomed the Soviet power and some of them joined the newly established Soviet nomenklatura, including NKVD, the Soviet political police. The latter has used these locals to find and arrest numerous priests.[1] Other priests were arrested and interrogated by the Soviet NKVD itself, then deported to the interior of the USSR, and killed. Research on this subject is still at an early stage. As of 2007, the Christian Orthodox church has bestowed the martyrdom to circa 50 clergymen who died in the first year of Soviet occupation (1940–1941).[1]

In 1940–1941, some churches were sacked, looted, transformed into public or utility buildings, or closed. Taxes were set, which the believers were obliged to pay if they wanted to pray and be allowed to hold the mass. When Romanian authorities returned after June 1941, churches and monasteries were rebuilt and opened again, but persecution resumed in 1944, when Soviet forces reconquered the territory.[1][2][3]

The (incomplete) list below contains clergymen of any denomination. Like the majority of the population of the region,[citation needed] most of the people named below were Romanian Christian Orthodox. A person is listed below only if the church has officially used the term martyr in reference to the individual. In doing so, Christian churches have to follow a three-step rule: martyrium materialiter (violent death), martyrium formaliter ex parte tyranni (for the faith on the part of the persecutors), martyrium formaliter ex parte victimae (conscious acceptance of God's will).

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c (in Romanian)Martiri pentru Hristos, din România, în perioada regimului comunist, Editura Institutului Biblic și de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, București, 2007, pp. 34–35.
  2. ^ (in Romanian)Ludmila Tihonov, Politica statului sovietic faţă de cultele din RSS Moldovenească (1944–1965), Editura Prut Internaţional, 2004, p.23–65
  3. ^ (in Romanian)Alexandru Donos, Regimul sovietic şi Biserica Ortodoxă din Basarabia comunizată (1944–1953), in Partidul, Securitatea și Cultele, 1945–1989, Adrian Nicolae Petcu Ed., București, Nemira, 2005, p. 337–349
  4. ^ a b (in Romanian)Martiri pentru Hristos, din România, în perioada regimului comunist, Editura Institutului Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, București, 2007, p. 764
  5. ^ (in Romanian)Constantin I. Stan, Alexandru Gaiţă, Refugiaţi din Basarabia şi Bucovina de Nord la Râmnicu-Sărat, Buzău și Mizil (1940–1941), in Destin românesc, an IV (1997), no. 2 (14), p. 79, cf. Ibidem above
  6. ^ (in Romanian)Constantin I. Stan, Alexandru Gaiţă, Biserica Ortodoxă Română din Basarabia şi Bucovina de Nord în anii 1940–1941, in Destin românesc, an IV (1997), no. 3 (15), pp. 99–110, cf. Ibidem above
  7. ^ (in Romanian) Constantin I. Stan, Alexandru Gaiță, Biserica Ortodoxă Română din Basarabia şi Bucovina de Nord în anii 1940–1941, in Destin românesc, an IV (1997), no. 3 (15), pp. 99–110, cf. above
  8. ^ (in Romanian)Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăre, Preoți martiri ai Mitropoliei Basarabiei, in Literatura și Arta, nr. 11 (2391), 13 martie 1997, Chișinău, p. 7, cf. above
  9. ^ (in Romanian)Alfa și Omega, an I, nr. 1, ianuarie 1995, p.5, cf. above
Categories