April 29 marks ten years since the passing of Archimandrite Roman Braga, a confessor of faith during communist Romania and later a spiritual father and missionary in Brazil and the United States.
Father Roman Braga was born on April 2, 1922, in Condrița, Bessarabia, as the seventh child of Cosma and Maria Braga. He completed his primary education in his native village and, at the age of 12, entered Căldărușani Monastery near Bucharest as a novice.
A year later, he enrolled in the Theological Seminary of Cernica. After its closure in 1940, he transferred to the Central Seminary in Bucharest and completed his final year at the Theological Seminary in Chișinău.
He later returned to Bucharest, where between 1943 and 1947, he studied at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy and attended the “Titu Maiorescu” Pedagogical Seminary. In 1947, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest with honours and obtained his certification as a teacher of Romanian language and Religion.
Years of Imprisonment
In 1948, he was arrested and accused of ties to the Legionary Movement despite a lack of evidence. After a year of investigation, he was sentenced to five years in prison for failure to report and provide aid. He was incarcerated at Pitești and later sent to forced labour at the Danube–Black Sea Canal at the Peninsula colony.
He was released in 1953 with a mandatory residence in Bucharest but escaped to Iași, where his sister, Mother Benedicta, lived. There, he was noticed by Metropolitan Serafim Rusanul and entered monastic life on January 2, 1954. Four days later, he was ordained a deacon on January 6.
In 1959, he was once again interrogated by communist authorities, this time for alleged involvement with the “Burning Bush” spiritual group at Antim Monastery during his student years. He was sentenced to 18 years of hard labour and 10 years of civic degradation for “hostile activity against the regime.”
He was imprisoned at Balta Albă Penitentiary but served only five years of the sentence, being released in 1964 following the general amnesty for political prisoners. After his release, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Valerian Zaharia of Oradea.
On January 1, 1965, he was appointed priest in Negrești, in Țara Oașului, where he served for three years before transferring to the parish in Sârbi, near Oradea.
Spiritual Father and Missionary Overseas
Eventually, he was sent as a missionary priest to Brazil to serve the Romanian community in São Paulo. He remained there until 1972 when he began pastoral work in North America. For seven years, he focused on religious education for children, translating religious texts from Romanian into English and adapting liturgical music for English audiences.
In 1979, he was appointed parish priest at “Holy Trinity” Church in Youngstown, Ohio, and in 1982, to “St. George” Cathedral in Southfield, Michigan.
A year later, he became the spiritual father of the “Transfiguration of the Lord” Monastery in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, where he served until 1988. He then retired to the Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan, where his sister, Mother Benedicta, was the abbess.
He fell asleep in the Lord on April 29, 2015, after a long illness.
Photo: Doxologia
