Nicolae Steinhardt

Nicolae Steinhardt, born Nicu-⁠Aurelian on 29 July 1912 at Pantelimon, near Bucharest, into a Jewish family, was a jurist, essayist, writer, political prisoner and monk at Rohia Monastery, author of the Journal of Happiness. He died on 30 March 1989 at Baia Mare. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He attended the Spiru Haret lyceum, where his classmates included Constantin Noica, Mircea Eliade, Dinu Pillat and Alexandru Paleologu, and studied Law, with a doctorate in constitutional law. He made his debut in 1934, under the pseudonym Antisthius. In 1959 he was arrested in the Noica-⁠Pillat group, accused of plotting against the social order, and sentenced to twelve years of hard labour. In Jilava prison, on 15 March 1960, he was baptized into the Orthodox faith by the Bessarabian hieromonk Mina Dobzeu; his godfather was Emanuel Vidrașcu, and witnesses included Alexandru Paleologu and priests of other confessions, so that the baptism should have an ecumenical character, as he himself told it. He passed through Jilava, Gherla and Aiud and was released in August 1964, in the general amnesty. Immediately after release, at Darvari Skete, he completed his baptism with chrismation and Communion.

From 1964 he worked as a translator and publicist, under Securitate surveillance. His friendship with Noica led him to Maramureș, to Rohia Monastery, where he stayed in the summer of 1978 and settled in 1979 as librarian, with the blessing of Bishop Iustinian Chira. On 16 August 1980 he was tonsured a monk, as Brother Nicolae. The experience of prison and conversion, told with humour and depth, makes up the Journal of Happiness, published after 1989 and translated into many languages. He also wrote God in Whom You Say You Do Not Believe, The Danger of Confession, The Road to Hesychia and other books of essays and letters.

He died on 30 March 1989 and is buried at Rohia. He is regarded as a confessor of the Church; the Holy Synod has not canonized him.