Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș, one of the founders of the “Burning Bush” Hesychast Movement, humbly reposed in the Lord on June 12, 1990.
Born Vasile Ghiuș in 1904 in Domnești, Vrancea County, he studied at the Faculty of Theology in Cernăuți and later earned his doctorate in Strasbourg, France.
In 1934, he embraced monastic life at “New Neamț” Monastery in Bessarabia, was ordained as a hierodeacon the same year, then as a hieromonk in 1936, and was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in 1939.
He served as a spiritual father to students at the Chișinău Seminary between 1938 and 1940, then at the Theological Academy in Arad (1944), and as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest (1944–1948).
Between 1949 and 1954, he taught at the Monastic Seminary of Neamț Monastery, where he spiritually guided many monks and priests alongside Bishop Gherasim Cucoșel and Elder Petroniu Tănase of Prodromos Skete. Later, he moved to Bucharest, where he continued to serve as a professor and spiritual father at the Theological Seminary.
The Burning Bush Movement
Patriarch Justinian appointed him abbot of St Anthimos Monastery to remove the “Burning Bush” group from under the leadership of an abbot imposed by the communist regime.
Together with Elders Sofian and Petroniu of Prodromos Skete, Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș gathered numerous intellectuals and introduced them to the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
In 1958, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the wave of arrests targeting the Burning Bush group. With the Jesus Prayer constantly on his lips and in his heart, he endured torture at the Aiud and Salcia prisons for six years.
After his release in 1964, he served for a decade as priest and confessor at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest before retiring to Cernica Monastery. There, he focused on republishing the Prologues originally printed at Neamț Monastery between 1854 and 1856.
Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș is buried at the cemetery of Cernica Monastery in Ilfov County.
Photo: Lumina newspaper
