Misplaced Pages

#394605

114-573: The prison was built on the site of an old fortress from 1540. The Sabbatarian Simon Péchi was arrested in May 1621 by then-Prince Gabriel Bethlen and spent three years in Szamosújvár Prison. In 1785, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor decreed it as the central prison for Transylvania, and it opened in 1787. The military deposit rooms and barns were turned into large detention rooms, seven for men and two for women. Two pillories were built, one in front of

228-614: A Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath. 8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after

342-666: A T-shaped design. The first political prisoners it housed arrived in 1942; these were high school students suspected of having taken part in the Legionnaires' rebellion . For a while after the proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic in December 1947, it continued to house primarily those found guilty of misdemeanors . Shortly after the establishment of the Securitate in August 1948,

456-447: A border-jumper), recalls: "The detention regime at Gherla was probably very similar to the extermination regime applied in the Nazi camps : 10 to 12 hours of physical work on a construction site, which was cordoned off with double fences of barbed-wire and with guarding towers, exactly like those to be found at the border." From 1964 to 1989, the prison housed common criminals. The penitentiary

570-410: A careful regard for the Lord's Day is still an appropriate mark of a pious people. It is still appropriate that Christians avoid unnecessary work and focus on their Creator on the Lord's Day. ... Personal recreation or social gatherings that detract from the sacred importance of the Lord's Day or hinder the attendance of church services should be avoided. Children should be taught early to carefully regard

684-566: A congregation from holding services on Saturday evenings). Like the aforementioned Calvinist groups, the early Methodists , who were Arminian in theology, were known for "religiously keeping the Sabbath day". They regarded "keeping the Lord's Day as a duty, a delight, and a means of grace ". The General Rules of the Methodist Church require "attending upon all the ordinances of God" including "the public worship of God" and prohibit "profaning

798-521: A day of rest, or not, and to establish a day of worship, or not, whether on Saturday or on Sunday or on some other day. It includes some nondenominational churches. Most Christian Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, Methodist Churches and Reformed Churches, have traditionally held that law in the Old Covenant has three components: ceremonial, moral, and civil. They teach that while

912-574: A day of worship, spiritual endeavor, and rest. Citing Hebrews 10:24–25 , Nathan Rose, a clergyman in the Southern Baptist Church , states with regard to the Lord's Day that "for every Christian, attendance at church gatherings is not optional." Similarly the Baptist Faith and Message , Article VIII, states "[t]he first day of the week is the Lord's Day" and that "[i]t is a Christian institution for religious observance" (though nothing forbids

1026-557: A due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy. The confession holds that not only is work forbidden in Sunday, but also "works, words, and thoughts" about "worldly employments and recreations." Instead,

1140-543: A greater concern for strict Sunday observance. In 1831, the founding of the Lord's Day Observance Society was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson. The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living , which is the covenant taken by members of the Moravian Church , teaches: 16. Worship and Sunday Observance — Remembering that worship is one of our proper responses to Almighty God, an experience designed for our benefit, and

1254-432: A ground-floor cell, where three ex-"re-educators" beat him until morning with their fists, broomsticks, boots and sandbags. Sent to the sickroom, the doctor ignored him and only an assistant wiped and tried to feed Flueraș, who died. The killing had been ordered from the top echelons of the ministry. Gherla was associated with summary, extralegal executions. In August 1949, on orders from Alexandru Nicolschi , seven members of

SECTION 10

#1732876479395

1368-536: A part of our Christian witness, we and our children will faithfully attend the worship services of the Church. 17. We, therefore, will be careful to avoid unnecessary labor on Sunday and plan that the recreations in which we engage on that day do not interfere with our own attendance or that of others at divine worship. The Church Polity of the Dunkard Brethren Church , a Conservative Anabaptist denomination in

1482-472: A perpetrator or who did not beat a former friend mercilessly was crushed by Țurcanu’s most brutal assistants — Steiner, Gherman, Pătrășcanu, Roșca, and Oprea. In addition to physical violence, inmates subject to "reeducation" were supposed to work for exhausting periods doing humiliating chores – for instance, cleaning the floor with a rag clenched between the teeth. Inmates were malnourished and kept in degrading and unsanitary conditions. Not able to resist

1596-702: A prisoner and former member of the Iron Guard, who had also shortly joined the Communist Party before being purged, dissatisfied with the progress in Suceava, proposed using violent means in order to enhance the process, obtaining the agreement of the Pitești prison administration. Țurcanu, who was probably acting on the orders of Securitate deputy chief Alexandru Nikolski , selected a tight unit of reeducation survivors as his assistants in carrying out political tasks. This group

1710-529: A study done by the International Centre for Studies into Communism , 20.3% of all political prisoners in Communist Romania spent time at Gherla. Food consisted of gruel and sour soups, consumed in a foul air, and packages were forbidden from 1951. Beatings and torture made it among the toughest prisons in the system. The prison (called by the locals the "Yellow House") was very imposing. To the south

1824-604: A youth crime wave. By 1914, there were 600 minors and 22 teachers who gave lessons on the first six grade subjects as well as sewing, shoemaking, gardening and locksmithing. The teachers and the students aged 18 and older were drafted into World War I, when the building housed wounded troops. After the union of Transylvania with Romania , it continued as a youth prison, housing between 136 and 276 boys and girls. It had an industrial orientation, training tailors, carpenters and gardeners. Frequent epidemics of typhoid, for example in 1914 and 1926, ended up killing 22 children. From 1940, after

1938-693: Is historically heralded by nonconformist denominations, such as Congregationalists and Presbyterians , as well as Methodists and Baptists . The essence of first-day Sabbatarianism, named for the Sabbath, is that it upholds the idea that Christians are bound to keep a specific code of conduct in relation to the principal day of Christian worship, or a day of rest, or both. The first-day, Puritan Sabbatarians constructed their code from their understanding of moral obligations following from their interpretation of "natural law", first defined in writings of Thomas Aquinas . Not seeking to re-establish Mosaic Law or Hebrew Sabbath practices, their connection to Judaizing

2052-441: Is in service today as a "Maximum Security Penitentiary". It also houses a museum, which opened in 1997. As of December 2020, there were 979 detainees at Gherla, of which 242 had retained their right to vote; at the 2020 legislative elections , 191 of those exercised that right. This is a partial list of notable inmates of Gherla Prison; the symbol † indicates those who died there. Sabbatarianism Sabbatarianism advocates

2166-477: Is manifested by practices such as Sunday blue laws . Seventh-day Sabbatarianism is a movement that generally embraces a literal reading of the Sabbath commandment that provides for both worship and rest on Saturday , the seventh day of the week. Judaism has observed a sabbath on the seventh day since antiquity, following the creation account in Genesis 2 which unambiguously states that God blessed and sanctified

2280-533: Is prohibited as well. A minority of Western Christians, such as Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists , observe Saturday as the Sabbath. First-day Sabbatarian (Sunday Sabbatarian) practices include attending morning and evening church services on Sundays, receiving catechesis in Sunday School on the Lord's Day, taking the Lord's Day off from servile labour, not eating at restaurants on Sundays, not Sunday shopping , not using public transportation on

2394-539: The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith , which advanced the same first-day Sabbatarian obligation of the Puritan Congregationalists' Savoy Declaration. Strict Sunday Sabbatarianism is sometimes called "Puritan Sabbath", and may be contrasted with "Continental Sabbath". The latter follows the continental reformed confessions , such as the Heidelberg Catechism , which emphasize rest and worship on

SECTION 20

#1732876479395

2508-603: The 1917 Code of Canon Law ¶1248 stipulated that "On feast days of precept, Mass is to be heard; there is an abstinence from servile work, legal acts, and likewise, unless there is a special indult or legitimate customs provide otherwise, from public trade, shopping, and other public buying and selling." Examples of servile works forbidden under this injunction include "plowing, sowing, harvesting, sewing, cobbling, tailoring, printing, masonry works" and "all works in mines and factories"; commercial activity, such as "marketing, fairs, buying and selling, public auctions, shopping in stores"

2622-477: The 1946 election before continuing their activity underground for a number of years, was arrested starting in December 1957. They were tried in mid-1958 and the leaders executed at Gherla in September. In June 1958 a group of prisoners—consisting mostly of young men who had tried to escape to Yugoslavia , and had either been caught or returned to Romania—rebelled, asking for a more humane treatment. The disturbance

2736-904: The Coptic Orthodox Church up until that point. This observance is not considered a Judaizing practice, as the Confession of emperor Saint Gelawdewos summarizes: "we do not honour it as the Jews do... but we so honour it that we celebrate thereon the Eucharist and have love-feasts , even as our Fathers the Apostles have taught us in the Didascalia". In the Roman Catholic Church , Church Councils and imperial edicts "sought to restrict various activities on this day Sunday, especially public amusements in

2850-650: The Elie Wiesel National Institute and others involved in the study of the Holocaust in Romania . The prison itself was built at an earlier stage. Work on it had begun in 1937, under King Carol II , and was completed in 1941, during Ion Antonescu 's rule. At the time, it was the most modern detention facility in Romania. Located at the northern edge of Pitești , the building was structured on four levels: basement, ground floor, and two upper floors, arranged in

2964-491: The Lord's Day often takes the form of attending the Sunday morning service of worship, receiving catechesis through Sunday School , performing acts of mercy (such as evangelism , visiting prisoners in jails and seeing the sick at hospitals), and attending the Sunday evening service of worship, as well as refraining from Sunday shopping , servile work, playing sports, viewing the television, and dining at restaurants. The impact of first-day Sabbatarianism on Western culture

3078-754: The Particular Baptists , the Second London Baptist Confession advances first-day Sabbatarian views identical to the Westminster Confession , held by Presbyterians, and the Savoy Declaration , held by Congregationalists . Edward L. Smither explains that first-day Sabbatarianism is the normative view held by Baptists (both General and Reformed): This Sunday sabbatarian view is also reflected in such key Baptist statements as Jessey's Catechism of 1652, Keach's Catechism of 1677,

3192-615: The Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania ), Christian baptism was gruesomely mocked. Guards chanted baptismal rites as buckets of urine and fecal matter were brought to inmates. The inmate's head was pushed into the raw sewage; their head would remain submerged almost to the point of death. The head was then raised, the inmate allowed to breathe, only to have his or her head pushed back into

3306-791: The Schwarzenau Brethren tradition, teaches that "The First Day of the week is the Christian Sabbath and is to be kept as a day of rest and worship. (Matt. 28:1; Acts 20:7; John 20:1; Mark 16:2)" The Church of the United Brethren in Christ , in its membership standards codified in the Book of Discipline , teaches in its position on the Lord’s Day Observance: 1. Following the example of the early disciples and New Testament church, everyone should make provision for exercises of devotion on Sunday,

3420-646: The Second Vienna Award returned the area to Hungary, it held common criminals; these were freed upon the end of Hungarian rule in 1944. From late summer 1944 until early 1945, the prison was used as a deposit for the Soviet Army . It housed both political prisoners and common criminals from 1945, all men. Between 1945 and 1964, many inmates were peasants and workers, while others came from the middle class: self-employed, intellectuals, pupils and students. Many Romanian military officers who had initially fought against

3534-494: The Securitate secret police wanted to carry on the experiment under maximum-security conditions, or because they wished to collect evidence for the eventual trial of the Țurcanu group. With the end of "re-education" came a new warden, the notorious Petrache Goiciu, who quickly turned the prison into a place of hard work and violence. The remaining "re-educators" assumed a position as prominent torturers, who ended up killing Ioan Flueraș . In mid-1952, Goiciu ordered Flueraș to clean

Gherla Prison - Misplaced Pages Continue

3648-528: The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), in the Calvinist theological tradition. Chapter 21, "Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day", sections 7–8 read: 7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for

3762-510: The anti-communist resistance movement were removed from the prison on pretext of being transferred, and shot in an unknown location. In 1950, a convoy of 38 detainees left the prison and its members were shot. From 1958 to 1960, twenty-eight judicial executions were carried out at the prison; 200 prisoners died during the same period. In 1958, the Hunedoara Securitate concocted a plan for eliminating opponents of collectivization or of

3876-479: The purging of Romanian Communist Party leader Ana Pauker , the experiment was halted because the Romanian communist regime was sidelining its hardline Stalinist leaders. The overseers were put on trial; while twenty of the participating prisoners were sentenced to death, prison officials were given light sentences. Journalist and anti-communist activist Virgil Ierunca referred to the "reeducation experiment" as

3990-406: The "Pitești Experiment" or Fenomenul Pitești – the "Pitești Phenomenon") which was carried out between December 1949 and September 1951, during Communist party rule. The experiment, which was implemented by a group of prisoners under the guidance of the prison administration, was designed as an attempt to violently "reeducate" the mostly young political prisoners , who were primarily supporters of

4104-524: The "reeducation", on occasion, the director of the prison, Dumitrescu, would personally engage in those beatings. Each subject of the experiment was initially thoroughly interrogated , with torture applied as a mean to expose intimate details of his life ("external unmasking"). Hence, they were required to reveal everything they were thought to have hidden from previous interrogations; hoping to escape torture, many prisoners would confess to imaginary misdeeds. The second phase, "internal unmasking," required

4218-441: The 1817 visit of Emperor Francis II , a cloth factory opened, employing all able-bodied prisoners until 1840. There were 384 prisoners in 1855. The following year, the women were sent to Aiud Prison and the men unable to work, to other prisons. Thus, the population fell to 250. It peaked at 767 in 1897, of whom 10% were repeat offenders. Some 60-70 prisoners remained in 1913, when it became a correctional institute for minors, amidst

4332-590: The Baptist Catechism for Girls and Boys of 1798, the Baptist Catechism of the Charleston Association of 1813, Spurgeon's Catechism of 1855, the Abstract of Principles of 1858, Everts' Catechism of 1866, Boyce's Catechism of 1867, and Broadus' Catechism of 1892. These documents (and the list is by no means exhaustive) exhort the faithful to abstain from all secular labor and amusements, and to reserve Sunday as

4446-639: The Christian Sabbath from those performed on the Jewish Sabbath, Jonathan Edwards wrote: We are taught by Christ, that the doing of alms and showing of mercy are proper works for the Sabbath-day. When the Pharisees found fault with Christ for suffering his disciples to pluck the ears of corn, and eat on the Sabbath, Christ corrects them with that saying, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice;” Mat. 12:7. And Christ teaches that works of mercy are proper to be done on

4560-686: The Liberty Association Articles of Faith (1824), as well as the General Association Articles of Faith of both 1870 and 1949 all state: We believe in the Sanctity of the Lords Day, the first day of the week, and that this day ought to be observed by worshipping God, witnessing for Christ, and ministering to the needs of humanity. We believe that secular work on Sunday should be limited to cases of necessity or mercy. With regard to

4674-641: The Lord's Day Alliance continues to state its mission as to "encourage all people to recognize and observe a day of Sabbath rest and to worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ, on the Lord’s Day, Sunday". The Board of Managers of the Lord's Day Alliance is composed of clergy and laity from Christian churches, including Baptist , Catholic , Episcopalian , Friends , Lutheran , Methodist , Non-Denominationalist , Orthodox , Presbyterian , and Reformed traditions. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also supports first-day Sabbatarian views and worked to reflect these in

Gherla Prison - Misplaced Pages Continue

4788-533: The Lord's Day Alliance, have mounted campaigns, with support in both Canada and Britain from labour unions, with the goals of preventing secular and commercial interests from hampering freedom of worship and preventing them from exploiting workers. In the present day, 'First-day Sabbatarian' or 'Sunday Sabbatarian' is applied to those, such as the Presbyterian Churches, who teach morning and evening Sunday worship, rest from servile labour, as well as honouring

4902-562: The Lord's Day by avoiding their usual loud and boisterous play. A sacred regard for the Sabbath is an integral part of holy living. We believe that such carefulness should mark every earnest child of God. Similarly, the Book of Discipline of Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (which aligned with the Wilburite branch of Quakerism) teaches "Remember the special opportunities for refreshment of spirit and for service which

5016-466: The Lord's Day by refraining from shopping on Sundays, as well as refraining from participating or viewing sporting events held on Sundays, in addition to performing works of mercy on the first day. Similarly, the common term "Christian Sabbath" is sometimes used to describe the fact that most Christians assemble in worship on Sunday, and may also consider it a day of rest, aligning with the Biblical norms of

5130-463: The Lord's Day, but do not explicitly forbid recreational activities. However, in practice, many continental Reformed Christians also abstain from recreation on the Sabbath, following the admonition by the Heidelberg Catechism's author Zacharaias Ursinus that "To keep holy the Sabbath, is not to spend the day in slothfulness and idleness". The evangelical awakening in the 19th century led to

5244-491: The Lord's Day, holy in observance of Sabbath commandment principles. Non-Sabbatarianism is the view opposing all Sabbatarianism, declaring Christians to be free of mandates to follow such specific observances. It upholds the principle in Christian church doctrine that the church is not bound by such law or code, but is free to set in place and time such observances as uphold Sabbath principles according to its doctrine: to establish

5358-405: The Lord's Day, not participating in sporting events that are held on Sundays, as well as not viewing television and the internet on Sundays; Christians who are Sunday Sabbatarians often engage in works of mercy on the Lord's Day, such as evangelism , as well as visiting prisoners at jails and the sick at hospitals and nursing homes. The Puritans of England and Scotland brought a new rigour to

5472-446: The Lord’s Day, and inasmuch as possible shall attend all services for hearing read the Word of God, singing spiritual songs and hymns, Christian fellowship, and giving of tithes and offerings (John 20:19, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Hebrews 10:25). 2. Members are admonished to neither buy nor sell needlessly on the Lord’s Day. These standards expect the faithful to honour the Lord's Day by attending

5586-437: The Lord’s day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection." Section VII reemphasizes this: Be not careless of yourselves, neither deprive your Saviour of His own members, neither divide His body nor disperse His members, neither prefer the occasions of this life to the word of God; but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in

5700-460: The Lord’s house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear

5814-666: The Orthodox branch of Quakerdom further discuss the importance of the First Day in their Book of Discipline . For example, the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends in its Manual of Faith and Practice teaches: Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1). This fact, and the fact that the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost on the first day of the week (Acts 2:1, where the name Pentecost means "fiftieth" and refers to

SECTION 50

#1732876479395

5928-642: The Pitești Prison became a detention center for university students. By April 1949, the director of Pitești Prison was Alexandru Dumitrescu. According to Rusan, early attempts at "reeducation" had occurred at the prison in Suceava , continuing in a violent manner in Pitești and, less violently, at the Gherla Prison . The group of overseers had been formed from people who had themselves been arrested and found guilty of political crimes . Their leader, Eugen Țurcanu ,

6042-736: The Puritans, in the Savoy Declaration . The Puritans' influential reasoning spread Sabbatarianism to other Protestant denominations, such as the Methodist Churches for example, during the 17th and 18th centuries, making its way beyond the British Isles to the European continent and the New World. It is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". Reformed Baptists , for example, uphold

6156-529: The Romanian post-communist politics and the trend to reincorporate a nationalist ideology within anti-communist rhetoric, the conservative right wing has attempted to reconstruct the recent past by transforming the victims in Pitești into martyrs and heroes, enlisting towards this end various quasi-religious organisations, the Romanian Orthodox Church and some former dissidents and civic organisations. Opposition to this trend has come primarily from

6270-583: The Sabbath, Luke 13:15, 16, and 14:5. As early as the second century, Irenaeus , who was a disciple of Polycarp , himself a disciple of John the Apostle , "On the Lord’s day every one of us Christians keep the Sabbath, meditating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God." Writing in the fourth century, the early Church Father , Eusebius , taught that for Christians, "the sabbath had been transferred to Sunday". This view held by Eusebius, particularly his "interpretation of Psalm 91 (ca. 320) greatly influenced

6384-529: The Sabbath, and even the Puritans. The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, makes a clear distinction or separation between the Sabbath and Sunday, arguing that the Christian observance of the Lord's Day respects the moral law of Ten Commandments as it is a fulfillment of the Hebrew Sabbath, with only the ceremonial law changing the weekly day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. In the Catholic Church,

6498-534: The Sabbath; "the Sabbatarian controversy divided the kingdom during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." Zara Yaqob , the king, eventually "decreed that the Sabbatarian teaching of the northern monks become the position of the church". This "Sabbatarian" teaching was not the innovation of Ewostatewos but was based on the historic teaching of the Apostolic Constitutions and was not a controversy within

6612-510: The Securitate, with the goal of discrediting Romanian law enforcement. In the early 1980s, several apartment blocks were constructed on an area covering about a third of the prison courtyard; part of the old prison wall was left standing on the northwestern side. Abandoned and partially in ruin, the prison building was sold to a construction firm in 1991, after the Revolution of 1989 ; several of

6726-516: The Soviet Army in World War II were incarcerated at Gherla by the communist regime after the end of the war. Many of the anti-communist resistance figures spent jail time or disappeared forever into this prison. The spacious building soon filled up, with eight to twelve crowded into two-man cells. There were 703 prisoners in late 1948, of whom over 600 were political. By 1950, there were 1600, almost 1200 of them political. The population peaked at 4500 in summer 1959, dropping to 600 by 1964. According to

6840-421: The advent of the communist regime. Literary critic Arleen Ionescu argues that, "although Makarenko's and Țurcanu's projects of engineering a New Man show structural analogies, the texture of the experience was very different." The prison also ensured a preliminary selection for the labor camps at the Danube–Black Sea Canal , Ocnele Mari , and other sites, where squads of former inmates were supposed to extend

6954-422: The ceremonial and civil (judicial) laws have been abolished, the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments still continues to bind Christian believers. Among these Ten Commandments, which are believed by Jews and Christians to be written by the finger of God , is " Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy ." According to the New Testament, after the resurrection of Jesus he appeared to his disciples on

SECTION 60

#1732876479395

7068-448: The day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work therein or by buying or selling". Methodism, however, teaches that "Christ made allowances for acts of mercy on the Lord's Day such as; nurses, doctors, etc. [Matt. 12:11; John 5:15-16]". The Sunday Sabbatarian practices of the earlier Wesleyan Methodist Church in Great Britain are described by Jonathan Crowther in A Portraiture of Methodism : They believe it to be their duty to keep

7182-467: The day should be employed in any other way, except in works of mercy and necessity. On this day, they believe it to be their duty to worship God, and that not only in form, but at the same time in spirit and in truth. Therefore, they employ themselves in prayer and thanksgiving, in reading and meditating on the scriptures, in hearing the public preaching of God's word, in singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, in Christian conversation, and in commemorating

7296-514: The death certificates of those who had succumbed to torture, eventually serving five years in prison. Room 99, isolated from the other cells, was very spacious; prisoners would sit around the edges, with the torturers guarding the exits. Whoever complained to the guards would immediately be beaten, stripped naked, chained to the solitary confinement cell, constantly having cold water poured on him and left to hunger for days on end. Room 97 had wooden beds, with detainees staying naked underneath. Known as

7410-522: The director of the prison, Dumitrescu, was not in favor of reeducation; he changed course, however, after Ion Marina, the local representative of the Securitate, applied pressure on him. Marina was closely coordinating with the leadership of the Directorate for Penitentiaries , particularly with Iosif Nemeș, the chief of the Operations Service, and with Tudor Sepeanu, the head of Inspection Services. Detainees, who were subject to regular and severe beatings, were required to engage in torturing each other, with

7524-403: The divine institution of the Lord's Day as a fulfillment of the Jewish Shabbat , a change that these Christians believed was foreshadowed in Isaiah 65:17 . The Apostolic Constitutions (ca. 380), in Section II, reveals that the early Church kept both the seventh-day Sabbath, observed on Saturday, as well as the Lord's Day, celebrated on the first-day (Sunday): "But keep the Sabbath, and

7638-418: The dying love of the Lord Jesus Christ. ... And with them it is a prevailing idea, that God must be worshipped in spirit , daily, in private families, in the closet, and in the public assemblies. Pite%C8%99ti Prison Pitești Prison ( Romanian : Închisoarea Pitești ) was a penal facility in Pitești , Romania , best remembered for the reeducation experiment (also known as Experimentul Pitești –

7752-439: The experiment had failed. In August 1951, Eugen Țurcanu , the lead torturer at Pitești, arrived at Gherla. During the preceding fourteen months, Țanu, his adjunct and rival at Pitești, had won the respect of the Gherla administration. As a result, in trying to mark their territory, the two men exacerbated the beatings and tortures, doubling the number of deaths in Room 99, nicknamed the “chamber of death”. The prison doctor falsified

7866-436: The experiment were tried the following year; all were given light sentences, and were freed soon after. Colonel Sepeanu was arrested in March 1953 and sentenced to 8 years on 16 April 1957, but was pardoned and set free on 13 November of that year. Responding to new ideological guidelines, the court concluded that the experiment had been the result of successful infiltration by American and Horia Sima 's Iron Guard agents into

7980-541: The experiment. In 1952, as Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej successfully maneuvered against the Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu , the process was stopped by the authorities themselves. The ODCC secretly faced trial for abuse , and over twenty death sentences were handed out on 10 November 1954. Țurcanu was held responsible for the murder of 30 prisoners, and the abuse exercised on 780 others. He and sixteen accomplices were executed by firing squad on 17 December at Jilava Prison . Securitate officials who had overseen

8094-406: The facilities have either been torn down or underwent major changes. A memorial was built in front of the prison's entrance. According to the Romanian historian Mircea Stănescu, tens of people died in the "Pitești experiment"; its aim was not to kill the inmates, but to "reeducate" them. For a 2017 art exhibit at the former Pitești Prison, artist Cătălin Bădărău sculpted contorted figures lying in

8208-545: The fascist Iron Guard , as well as Zionist members of the Romanian Jewish community . The Romanian People's Republic adhered to a doctrine of state atheism and the inmates who were held at Pitești Prison included religious believers, such as Christian seminarians. According to writer Romulus Rusan  [ ro ] , the experiment's goal was to re-educate prisoners to discard past religious convictions and ideology, and, eventually, to alter their personalities to

8322-468: The fiftieth day following the offering of the sheaf of firstfruits in the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ as the firstfruits from among the dead, Lev. 23:15, 16, I Cor. 15:20), set a precedent for beginning to keep the first day in honor of the Lord. ... Love for God should motivate the Christian in his observance of the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's Day. We believe that

8436-551: The first day of the week ( Matthew 28:1 , Mark 16:2 , Luke 24:1 , John 20:1–19 ), the Holy Spirit was sent to the Church on the first day of the week ( Pentecost Sunday ), the disciples celebrated the Eucharist and took up collections on the first day of the week ( Acts 20:7 , 1 Corinthians 16:1–2 ); in addition the first day of the week is referred to as the Lord's Day in Revelation 1:10 —these findings, for Christians, served as

8550-715: The first day of the week affords; use them faithfully, as befits the Friends of the Master." First-day Sabbatarian views are embodied in the confessions of faith held by both General Baptists and Reformed Baptists . With respect to General Baptists , the Treatise on the Faith and Practice of the Free Will Baptists states: This is one day in seven, which from the creation of the world God has set apart for sacred rest and holy service. Under

8664-449: The first day of the week as a sabbath. This, before Christ, was on the last day of the week; but from the time of his resurrection, was changed into the first day of the week, and is in scripture called, The Lord's Day , and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian sabbath. This they believe to be set apart by God, and for his worship by a positive , moral , and perpetual commandment. And they think it to be agreeable to

8778-438: The former dispensation, the seventh day of the week, as commemorative of the work of creation, was set apart for the Lord's Day. Under the gospel, the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and by authority of Christ and the apostles, is observed as the Christian Sabbath. On this day all men are required to refrain from secular labor and devote themselves to the worship and service of God. Similarly,

8892-474: The goal of discouraging past loyalties. Guards would force them to attend scheduled or ad-hoc political instruction sessions, on topics such as dialectical materialism and Joseph Stalin 's History of the CPSU(B) Short Course , usually accompanied by random violence and encouraged delation ( demascare , lit. "unmasking") for various real or invented misdemeanors. According to a former participant in

9006-461: The ground floor and four rooms on the first floor were reserved for workshops and storage, with the remaining 21 for prisoners. Another building from the same period housed the administration; it had two floors and sat on a bastion from the fortress. From 1898, the warden lived on the upper floor, used for offices under communism. Until 1945, the ground floor included offices for the administration, guard commander and chaplains; subsequently, it contained

9120-401: The hallways or in the cells; one figure stood awkwardly on his head, others had their hands tied behind their backs or were covering their faces. According to Bădărău, "They were strong people when they went into prison but they came out physical wrecks. But conversely, they became spiritual giants." The prison was turned into a museum in 2014 with the help of private funding and was designated

9234-551: The largest and most intensive brainwashing torture program in the Eastern Bloc . In even stronger terms, Nobel Laureate and Gulag survivor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn called it "the most terrible act of barbarism in the contemporary world". Ex-detainee Gheorghe Boldur-Lățescu has described the Pitești Experiment as being "unique in the history of crimes against humanity". Researcher Monica Ciobanu noted that, as part of

9348-422: The law of nature, as well as divine institution, that a due proportion of time should be set apart for the worship of God. ... This day ought to be kept holy unto the Lord, and men and women ought so to order their affairs, and prepare their hearts, that they may not only have a holy rest on that day, from worldly employments, words, and thoughts, but spend the day in the public and private duties of piety. No part of

9462-657: The morning service of worship and the evening service of worship on the Lord's Day, in addition to not engaging in Sunday trading . The Richmond Declaration , a confession of faith held by the Orthodox branch of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakerism), teaches with regard to the First Day: Whilst the remembrance of our Creator ought to be at all times present with the Christian, we would express our thankfulness to our Heavenly Father that He has been pleased to honor

9576-602: The need for legal codes and accept the non-Sabbatarian principles long established in Christianity. In Oriental Christianity, however, the Sabbath always retained importance, particularly leading to controversy within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . In the fourteenth century, the monk Abba Ewostatewos and his supporters, mostly based in mountainous areas of northwest Ethiopia found themselves in controversy with southern monks over strict observance of

9690-508: The observance of the Christian Lord's Day, in reaction to the customary Sunday observance of the time, which they regarded as lax. They appealed to Sabbath ordinances with the idea that only the Bible can bind men's consciences in whether or how they will take a break from work, or to impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Sunday Sabbatarianism is enshrined in its most mature expression,

9804-571: The observation of the Sabbath in Christianity , in keeping with the Ten Commandments . The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism , a view which was historically heralded by nonconformist denominations, such as Congregationalists , Presbyterians , Methodists , Moravians , Quakers and Baptists , as well many Episcopalians . Among Sunday Sabbatarians (First-day Sabbatarians), observance of

9918-452: The office of the prison furniture factory. An exterior security point became a telephone room under communism. Other changes included turning the provisions office and guard commander’s residence near the gate into a meeting hall for cadres; and closing the two churches (Orthodox and Greek-Catholic) on the prison ground floor, making them into a kitchen. In its first two years (1787-1788), the prison received 151 male and female prisoners. After

10032-414: The other?" Nevertheless, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim stated that the practice of observing both the Hebrew Sabbath and the Lord's Day was principally observed in those congregations that were made up of Jewish converts to Christianity and gradually faded away; on the other hand, the observance of the Lord's Day was characteristic of all Christian assemblies. In distinguishing the observances performed on

10146-399: The physical and psychological violence, some prisoners tried to commit suicide by severing their veins. Two of the inmates, Gheorghe Șerban and Gheorghe Vătășoiu, ended their lives by throwing themselves through the opening between the stairways, before safety nets were installed. Many died from injuries sustained during beatings and torture. Alexandru Bogdanovici, one of the initiators of

10260-418: The point of absolute obedience. Estimates for the total number of people who passed through the experiment range from at least 780 to up to 1,000, to 2,000, to 5,000. Journalists Laurențiu Dologa and Laurențiu Ionescu estimate almost 200 inmates died at Pitești, while historian Mircea Stănescu accounts for 22 deaths during the period, 16 of them with documented participation in the "re-education". After

10374-481: The prison and the other in the town center. Following the Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan , some 10,000 prisoners passed through over the next decade. Inmates had to pay for their own food and clothing or else rely on charity. Discipline consisted of labor, beatings with bats and whips, pillorying and branding. The main building was constructed between 1857 and 1860. It is a U-shaped structure with 36 large rooms. Initially,

10488-663: The public sphere. In Canada, the Lord's Day Alliance (renamed the People for Sunday Association of Canada) was founded there and it lobbied successfully to pass in 1906 the Lord's Day Act , which was not repealed until 1985. A Roman Catholic Sunday league, the Ligue du Dimanche was formed in 1921 to promote first-day sabbatarian restrictions in Quebec , especially against movie theaters. Throughout their history, first-day Sabbatarian organizations, such as

10602-573: The reeducation process at Suceava, was repeatedly tortured until his death in April 1950. Historian Adrian Cioroianu argued that techniques used by the ODCC could have been ultimately derived from Anton Makarenko 's controversial pedagogy and penology principles in respect to rehabilitation . Such connection was however disputed by historian Mihai Demetriade , who noted that similar cases of extreme violence within imprisoned Iron Guard groups existed before

10716-718: The regime. It invented a resistance group called the White Guard. Ioan Nistor, a technician at the Hunedoara Steel Works , was selected as leader. Another 72 people, many of whom were strangers to one another, were arrested. Nistor was tried and executed at Gherla in January 1959. Another eight executions of the fictitious group’s members took place there in 1958–1959. A group of resisters led by Iosif Capotă and Alexandru Dejeu  [ ro ] , both National Peasants' Party activists who had emerged as anti-communists during

10830-476: The same way as the Jews had their own day of rest." The Council of Elvira , in A.D. 300, declared that individuals who failed to attend church for three Sundays in a row should be excommunicated until they repented of their sin. Tendencies towards Sabbatarianism began to resurface very early in the Reformation (early 16th century), causing some of the first Protestants, Luther and Calvin among them, to deny

10944-471: The saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray thrice standing in memory of Him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the Gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food? The Didache commands believers to "Gather together each Sunday, break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." It

11058-422: The setting apart of one day in seven for the purposes of holy rest, religious duties, and public worship; and we desire that all under our name may avail themselves of this great privilege as those who are called to be risen with Christ, and to seek those things that are above where He sitteth at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1) May the release thus granted from other occupations be diligently improved. On this day of

11172-627: The seventh-day Sabbath, as well as Sunday as the Lord's Day . Likewise, the Coptic Church , another Oriental Orthodox body, "stipulates that the seventh-day Sabbath, along with Sunday, be continuously regarded as a festal day for religious celebration." Its historical origins lie in early Christianity , later in the Eastern Church and Irish Church , and then in Puritan Sabbatarianism , which delineated precepts for keeping Sunday ,

11286-568: The seventh-day, having rested on the seventh day from all his creation which God had made to do. Seventh Day Baptists leave most other Sabbath considerations of observance to individual conscience. The Sabbatarian Adventists ( Seventh-day Adventist Church , Davidian Seventh-day Adventists , Church of God (Seventh Day) , and others) have similar views, but maintain the original, scriptural duration as Friday sunset through Saturday sunset. The Orthodox Tewahedo Churches in Ethiopia and Eritrea observe

11400-575: The sewage. Ierunca further states that the prisoners' whole bodies were burned with cigarettes ; their buttocks would begin to rot, and their skin fell off as though they suffered from leprosy. Others were forced to swallow spoons of excrement, and when they threw it back up, they were forced to eat their own vomit. The inmates were required to accept the notion that their own family members had various criminal and grotesque features; they were required to author false autobiographies, comprising accounts of deviant behavior. Any prisoner who refused to become

11514-458: The theater and circus." Abstention from sin , in the eyes of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430), meant Sabbath rest from servile work on Sunday. Many Protestant denominations, such as the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, observe Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland promoted first-day Puritan Sabbatarian practices. In addition, first-day Sabbatarianism

11628-568: The toilets at the local furniture factory. Developing an obsession with the imprisoned politician, Goiciu would start screaming at him whenever he found Flueraș outside his assigned area. In March 1953, the 70-year-old Flueraș was sent to the Interior Ministry Palace in Bucharest. It is unknown what happened to him there; he was brought back in June. One night shortly thereafter, he was moved into

11742-462: The tortured to reveal the names of those who had behaved less brutally or with relative indulgence to them in detention. Public humiliation was also enforced, usually at the third stage ("public moral unmasking"), inmates were forced to denounce all their personal beliefs, loyalties, and values. Notably, religious inmates had to blaspheme religious symbols and sacred texts. According to Virgil Ierunca (an anti-communist activist and member of

11856-439: The two courtyards, paved with stones. The main building had two entrances, one to the inner courtyard and the other to the workshop courtyard; the inner courtyard had a gate to the south leading to the workshops. In June 1950, a group of torturers arrived at Gherla from Pitești , the site of a wide-ranging experiment in “ re-education ”. Led by Alexandru Popa Țanu, they were joined in December by another group from Târgșor , where

11970-582: The ultimate transfer of sabbath assertions and prohibitions to the first day of the week." In "the fourth and fifth centuries theologians in the Eastern church were teaching the practical identity of the Jewish sabbath and the Christian Sunday." Saint Cæsarius of Arles (470-543) reiterated the view that "the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred onto Sunday, so that Christians had to keep it holy in

12084-525: The week especially ought the households of Friends to be assembled for the reading of the Scriptures and for waiting upon the Lord; and we trust that, in a Christianly wise economy of our time and strength, the engagements of the day may be so ordered as not to frustrate the gracious provision thus made for us by our Heavenly Father, or to shut out the opportunity either for public worship or for private retirement and devotional reading. Various yearly meetings in

12198-776: The whole day should be taken up with "public and private exercises of [one's] worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy." Denominations that adhere to the Westminster Larger Catechism (1648), such as the Free Presbyterian Church of North America and the Netherlands Reformed Congregations , teach: The sabbath or Lord’s day is to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making it our delight to spend

12312-524: The whole time (except so much of it as is to betaken up in works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day. This statement was adopted by the Congregationalist Churches, which are descended from

12426-539: The “madmen’s room”, it involved savage beatings to the point of unconsciousness. Room 97, the “Chinese cell”, involved tying down the victim and subjecting him to a form of Chinese water torture . By late 1951, “re-education” had failed in several prisons and was fading away in Pitești. That December, Țurcanu and ten associates, believing they were on the way to Aiud in order to continue the process there, were in fact transported to Jilava for interrogation. Two torturers carried on at Gherla until March 1952, either because

12540-408: Was a cemetery, and next to it, a smaller one, for detainees dying at the prison. The fortress was surrounded by a 4-meter high wall, topped by several watchtowers with armed soldiers on guard. Next to the wall was a 3-meter wide space, fenced with a 2-meter high barbed wire fence. At the front entrance was the one-story administration building, and from this building, through a vaulted door, one reached

12654-503: Was called the Organizația Deținuților cu Convingeri Comuniste (ODCC, "Organisation of Detainees with Communist Beliefs"), and included the future Orthodox priest and dissident Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa and the Jewish detainee Petrică Fux. According to writers Ruxandra Cesereanu and Romulus Rusan the process begun in 1949 involved psychological punishment (mainly through humiliation) and physical torture . Initially

12768-585: Was limited to the use of a legal code by which Christians might be judged. With unwavering support by mainstream Christian denominations, Sabbatarian organizations were formed, such as the Lord's Day Alliance (founded as the American Sabbath Union) and the Sunday League of America, following the American Civil War , to preserve the importance of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Founded in 1888,

12882-623: Was quickly put down by the authorities, and the rebellious inmates were subjected to terrible beatings and torture; twenty-two of them received sentences of five to fifteen years. In an interview with Adevărul , an ex-detainee, Constantin Vlasie, recounts how the guards at Gherla Prison "were evil. They made us eat feces, we slept on the floor, they beat our feet until we fainted." He went on: "They wanted to break up our morale. They had evil methods to make us renounce our faith and worship them instead." Another ex-prisoner, Mihai Stăuceanu (arrested for being

12996-550: Was upheld in the fourth century by the ancient Church of the East , as well as in the sixth century by the Celtic Churches . Gregory of Nyssa , a fourth century Church Father, implored the faithful to observe both the seventh-day Sabbath and the Lord's Day: "With what eyes do you regard the Lord's Day, you who have desecrated the Sabbath? Do you know that these two days are related, that if you wrong one of them, you will stumble against

#394605