The place in Sibiu where Father Constantin Necula finds peace and answers to the anxieties of his peers

Father Constantin Necula needs no introduction, being recognized for the dedication with which he teaches future priests, students of the Faculty of Theology in Sibiu, but also for the way he combines the holy teachings with the everyday life of people. She declares herself an “anti-star”, not being at all comfortable with the public figure status that people have inevitably bestowed upon her.

“I didn’t want all this publicity. I’m happy when people ask me if I can. I answer them that yes, I can, because God keeps me. And that’s enough for me”, confessed Father Necula, CJ Sibiu quotes.

He has a dose of peace and energy in Sibiu, not even 5 kilometers from the center of the city that adopted him since he became a student of the Faculty of Theology. “I was born in Şcheii Brașov, and I discovered Sibiu at the same time when I chose the path of the priesthood. In Brașov, it was known that the people of Sibiu are serious people. It was enough to say that someone was a Siberian and you already perceived them in a certain way. I came to love Sibiu with all my heart.”

This is how it happens that, now, his soul rests in the Astra Museum in the Dumbrava Forest, especially in the small wooden church brought, in 1990, from the town of Bezded in Salăje. “It is enough to look at the painted ceiling of the little church and feel that you are in a ship treading water, gliding in the Sky.”

The church in Bezded was built exactly 270 years ago by the labor of the villagers and is still adorned with numerous painted icons. The slender tower stands out against the raw green of the forest, as if mediating the connection between Earth and Heaven. It is a ship of hope on board of which climb, even if only for a few moments, those who retreat from the sometimes black waves of life.

“We all need a moment of peace, to allow ourselves those thoughts that will reset us in the order of the days to come. Here, in the Dumbrava Forest, Emil Cioran, Lucian Blaga and DD Roșca used to come to read. And not by chance, here they found peace of mind. The forest has the memory of the people who searched for it”.

In the silence of the church, the happy trills of the forest resound, and the blooming acacia sheds waves of perfume on the gravel path long trodden by tourists. In turn, they came to the museum in Dumbrăva in search of peace, clean air and hundreds of old houses that make up a miniature Romania.

“I am still in love with Sibiu, the city with European roots and history. Sibians are people who have a permanent desire to educate themselves, they have a special attachment to faith because, throughout history, they have competed with other faiths.”

During his long journeys, he met tens of thousands of Romanians, whose footsteps he listened to, looking for, for each one, a parable meant to bring him comfort or hope: “We, Romanians, have a slight lack of confidence in our own strength. Somehow, we have a lack of inner freedom. We need as a people to get past this deadlock and we can do it by knowing our history and each other.”

It is Holy Week, with days and nights during which we can find, in our own way, answers to many of our anxieties. At the end of it, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. For everyone, Father Necula has an exhortation: “Always be on the side of Christ. It means standing on the side of the Resurrection”.

And this year, in the small and beautiful wooden church brought from Bezded, the Resurrection service will take place. Hundreds of believers will pray and take light, telling each other that, again, Christ has risen for the salvation of people. They will return to their families carrying in their hearts the joy of the holiday, but also the peace that the Dumbrava Forest offers to those who tread its paths.

There, in the Dumbravă Museum, in the porch with red geraniums of the church – ship, peace dwells. It is the place where, sometimes, you can meet Father Necula, slightly pensive, but always with a warm smile and a kind word.

It is the place where, once again, Sibiu County proves that it has people and places with a story.