Early life and education Born in
Lodroman village,
Alba County, on 14 May 1899, from his parents Petru and Agafia, by
metropolitan of
Făgăraș and Alba Iulia Alexandru Nicolescu, and returned to Bucharest as vicar bishop at
St. Basil's Church in Bucharest. His co-consecrators were
Alexandru Rusu, Bishop of
Maramureș, and
Ioan Bălan, Bishop of
Lugoj.
Arrest, torture and death In 1948, the new
Communist regime outlawed his church, and the authorities' efforts to compromise him failed. In October 1948 Aftenie severely reprimanded the 36 former Greek-Catholic priests who had signed up for Orthodoxy and arrived from
Cluj to the Patriarchate of Bucharest to bring their so-called adherence to the
Romanian Orthodox Church, abandoning the Romanian Church United with Rome. The delegates from Cluj were at the
Capșa Restaurant when Bishop Vasile Aftenie scolded them in public. More later, many of them have confessed that they were pressed to do it. or 29 October 1948 just after leaving St. Basil's Church, and taken, together with the other five Greek-Catholic bishops, to
Dragoslavele Mutilated, disabled, mentally broken but steadfast in faith he was thrown into
Văcărești Prison, where he died on 10 May 1950. from the
Bucharest Bărăția and he conducted the rites in secret several days after Aftenie was buried by night under the eyes of the
Securitate secret police. Another priest brought a cross permitted by the communist authorities at his grave with his initials and the year of his death several days after that written: "VA = 1950". In 1990, a white marble tombstone with a picture of the bishop was erected for him; his grave became a place of
pilgrimage and is adorned with candles and flowers, he is called for help and assistance.
Beatification Soon after, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of people come and pray to his grave. It is said that wonders happened here, to the prayers of the pilgrims, in response from God. The cause for the
beatification and
canonization of Vasile Aftenie and 6 other Romanian bishops began on 28 January 1997. The diocesan inquiry is closed in 2010 and sent to Rome for study by the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Since each bishop has the right to be buried in the church he served, the bones of Bishop Vasile Aftenie were exhumed in 2010, and his remains taken from Bellu cemetery to a Greek-Catholic church in Bucharest for storage on 13 May 2010, a request for his
beatification having been submitted the year before. On 19 March 2019
Pope Francis approved the beatification of Aftenie and six other Greek-Catholic
martyr bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century. On 25 March it was announced that Pope Francis himself would beatify Aftenie and the other six bishops on 2 June 2019 at Blaj's Liberty Field. ==See also==