Benedict Ghius

Benedict Ghiuș, born Vasile on 21 October 1904 at Domnești, in Vrancea, was an archimandrite, theologian and confessor, one of the founders of the Burning Bush group at Antim Monastery. He died on 12 June 1990 at Cernica Monastery. He is venerated by the faithful as a confessor, without synodal canonization; in his youth he had a closeness to the mystical ideas of legionary youth, without adhering to the organization's political ideology.

He attended the Seminary at Galați and Theology at Bucharest, then did his doctorate at Strasbourg (1927-1932). He became a monk in 1934 at Noul Neamț and was ordained hierodeacon and hieromonk. In 1936 he became prefect of studies at the Theological Boarding School in Cernăuți, and in 1939 archimandrite. After the flight from Bessarabia he served at the Patriarchal Cathedral (1940-1944). In 1943 he composed with other priests the pamphlet Renew Yourself, New Jerusalem, about a mystical reorganization of the Church; the communist authorities later considered it a legionary writing. Elected bishop of Hotin in January 1944, the election was invalidated by the government because of his alleged legionary sympathies. Between 1944 and 1948 he was assistant in the chair of Ascetics and Mystical Theology, under Father Dumitru Stăniloae, and defended his doctorate at Bucharest in 1946.

In 1943 he organized at Cernăuți, with Sandu Tudor, "the seven days of vigil", and between 1945 and 1948 he was the soul of the Burning Bush association at Antim, where Vasile Voiculescu, Constantin Noica, Alexandru Mironescu, Sofian Boghiu and many others lectured or came. Bartolomeu Anania said that Sandu Tudor was the organizer and brain, while Ghiuș was its spirit. In 1949 Patriarch Justinian named him patriarchal vicar and abbot of Antim, but the authorities refused to recognize him, and in 1950 he had to resign and was sent to Neamț, to remove him from the Securitate's view.

He was arrested on the night of 13-14 June 1958 with the whole Burning Bush group and on 8 November 1958 sentenced to eighteen years of hard labour. He passed through Jilava, Aiud and the Ostrov-⁠Salcia colony, had many illnesses and was released by decree on 25 June 1964. He served at the Patriarchal Cathedral until 1974, when he retired to Cernica, where he lived in seclusion until death. In 1995 the prosecutor general asked for annulment of the sentence, considering that the association was religious in character. He is buried in the cemetery of Cernica Monastery.