Ioan Iovan

Ioan Iovan, born Silviu Cornel on 26 June 1922 at Husasău de Criș, in Bihor, was an archimandrite and great confessor, a spiritual son of Father Arsenie Boca and confessor at the monasteries of Vladimirești, Plumbuita and Recea. He died on 17 May 2008 at Recea Monastery, in Vrancea. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He was the eighth child of the priest Gavriil and his wife Maria Iovan. He attended lyceum at Oradea, Theology at Cluj (1942-1946), with the thesis The Holy Eucharist and Mystical Life, began a doctorate under Father Dumitru Stăniloae and also studied Law. At Sâmbăta de Sus he met Father Arsenie Boca and was sent to Vladimirești Monastery, in Galați, as confessor. He was ordained deacon on 26 May 1948 by Bishop Nicolae Popovici of Oradea, the only martyr bishop of the Church under communism, and tonsured a monk on 7 November 1949 at Sihastru, near Adjud, with the name Ioan.

At Vladimirești, between 1948 and 1955, he communed the faithful often, like the first Christians, and introduced common confession, with the prescribed absolutions. This was judged uncanonical by the Patriarchate and, under pressure from the state organs, he was defrocked in absentia on 27 January 1955. On 29 March 1955 soldiers invaded the monastery and arrested him, Abbess Veronica and the nuns. The trial ended with a death sentence, commuted to hard labour for life. He was held at Galați, in the same cell where Iuliu Maniu had been, then at Văcărești, Jilava, Gherla and Aiud; in prison he served, heard confessions and communed thousands of prisoners, and refused re-⁠education. He was released on 1 August 1964. In 1966 he was tried for performing the Holy Mysteries and was defrocked again, in 1970 he was arrested a third time and sentenced to a year.

After release in 1971 he asked for reinstatement in the clergy. On 26 June 1979, after twenty-⁠four years of defrocking, he received approval to serve. He was at Cernica, then at Plumbuita (from 1980) and, from 1991, at Recea Monastery, near Târgu Mureș, then in Vrancea, where he died on 17 May 2008. Believers sought him for confession, for prayer for the sick and for his clear and courageous word.