A small house on Apalinei street in central Reghin, the County of Mures, consisting of two rooms and a kitchen, presents the dramatic story of Alexandru Todea, the second cardinal of Romania after his mentor Iuliu Hossu, the one who read in Alba Iulia, on the 1st of December 1918, the Proclamation of the Union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, which he kept watching and warding until his last moment, on May 28, 1970.

Alexandru Todea became a cardinal in 1991, but a year later he had to retire to the house in Reghin, after suffering a stroke, which caused him paralysis. He died on May 22, 2002, in Targu Mures, and is buried in the Holy Trinity Archbishop's Cathedral in Blaj.

Cardinal Alexandru Todea was born on the 5th of June 1912, in Teleac, in the Gornesti village of the Mures County, being the 13th of the 16 children of the family of peasants Gheorghe and Maria Todea. He studied in Reghin, Blaj and Rome, and after 1948 he continued to pastor the Greek-Catholic believers under communist persecution.

On the 19th of November 1950, he was clandestinely consecrated a Greek-Catholic bishop, and on the 31st of January 1951 he was arrested by the communists and sentenced to forced labour for life, being imprisoned for almost 14 years, including in Sighet. He was released in 1964, once with the pardon of the political prisoners, but his persecution did not stop there.

After the fall of the communist regime and the official recognition of the Greek Catholic Church, Alexandru Todea became Metropolitan, being then made Cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II, on the 29th of June 1991. From December 11, 1992 he became an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.

Beyond this impressive biography there is also a life of the man Alexandru Todea, who intertwined with the life of the clergyman, but only a few people know of.

The cardinal's great-granddaughter, Mariana Roman, is the one who took care of Alexandru Todea until his departure to heaven, she being appointed by the cardinal to remain in the small house in Reghin, to take care of all his documents and things.

"When the reverend was released from prison, on the night of August 5 to 6, 1964, he went to the house where he lived as a tenant when he was arrested. That night he went to Mrs. Carolina, knocked on the door, and she did not recognize him. After more than 13 years of jail, the family changed, became older and then he had to look for another house to rent. He lived as a tenant until 1979, and after that he moved here, on Apalinei Street at number 34. Here was a deserted house that he bought from the owners. Since then he has been here, on Apalinei, and he was able to carry out his mission activity, although he was followed step by step by the (political police, ed. n.) Securitate. There were reports of everything he did, everything he bought, who he met, hourly. I kept absolutely everything, this was the wish of his wish, to keep everything as it was," Mariana Roman said.

The cardinal's great-granddaughter showed us the library, which she told us would have over 1,000 volumes, books bought by him or received, from all fields: literature, medicine, religion, etc.

The house on Apalinei street in Reghin is austere, but it shelters an undeniable testimony from the time of religious persecution during the communist period.

"He was very carefully watched, he didn't even have a phone, when people needed him, they called him to a neighbour - a lady neighbour who had also done 12 years of prison because she was a very devoted and trustworthy believer of the cardinal. My grandfather was a brother to the cardinal, I'm a great-granddaughter, my mother is a niece of a brother, so I'm a great-granddaughter and my mother is almost 80 years old. To keep things exactly as they were, it was the cardinal's wish. If it is part of the history of the Church and of Romania, this is the reality, because he passed the First World War, the communist jails, he went through a lot. He studied in Rome, where he could only return after 50 years. After 50 years, in 1990, he was called to Rome by the Holy Father Pope John Paul II. We kept the house exactly as it was when Cardinal Todea lived here, including the altar table where he used to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Every day he celebrated mass, even if no people came to the service. People started coming to the service at Cardinal Todea's house in the '80s, at first fewer," the great-granddaughter said.

After 1989, on August 15, at the feast of the Assumption, Cardinal Todea, then Bishop, held a Mass and installed the altar in the street, because the Greek Catholic Church was no longer kept under the observation of the Securitate, and the place where it was celebrated until then had become poky.

"He put the altar in the street because the yard was full, and so was the neighbours' yard. After that mass, I remember that we all went to the funeral of a faithful woman whom Cardinal Todea had cared for, we went with several priests. While the cardinal kept the service in the house, until 1989, people began to come to services, but he never wanted to endanger anyone, and they would be persecuted if they visited him. Here in the house, we have the altar as it has always been. We still have here the vestments, the cardinal's cassock and those that the bishops wear (...). Until before he was a bishop, the garments were simple. After being made a cardinal, he wore the reddish cassock. We also have the garments in which he was ordained a priest, on March 25, 1939, they are preserved with great care. This is his personality, as he was dressed when he went to celebrations, to liturgies, to important events," Mariana Roman said.

The greatest longing, Mariana Roman tells us, tries her when she remembers "those unforgettable beautiful feelings" and the memorable moments she lived when the cardinal told her about his past: for her, he was a hero, a model, she admired him for the way he became aware of his illness and took it with dignity until the last day.

"Indeed, he used to attract a lot of people and a lot of people came here, loaded with all kinds of problems, and when they left, they said they were leaving lightly, as if they were flying. After he was installed in Blaj, on October 7, 1990, after the metropolitan castle was free to host him, a floor in the castle, he had there the office and the bedroom. I moved in myself and a friend of mine, along with whom I cared for him. In Reghin he returned at the end of August in 1992, got sick in April and I returned to Reghin after five months. He made a stroke and was paralyzed on the right side, in the big week of Easter, Wednesday happened. We have here kept the bed of his suffering for 10 years - from 1992 to 2002 - and this is his tiny cape, as it were, the prayer room. When he died it was May 22, it was Saint Rita, a saint he liked very much. (...) My girlfriend and I cared for him and God took care of all of us. (...) Paralysis is paralysis, that was another of his crosses after the prison, but I don't think I've met a person who with serenity carry out his suffering. And he became aware of the disease, he realized what he could, what he couldn't, he was so aware of everything around him. He celebrated mass every Sunday, he could not every day because it was too tiring for him, he was doing more for him and for us. It was just the two of us and him, this time," Mariana Roman recalled.

Two years after the onset of the paralysis, Cardinal Alexandru Todea participated in the laying of the foundation stone of the Assumption Church in Reghin and in the liturgy of sanctification of the place, but he did not get to see the construction completed.

It was only in 2012, 18 years after the beginning of the construction, that a religious service was served. This happened exactly 100 years after the birth of Cardinal Alexandru Todea and 10 years after his death.

"It also depended on his condition, as he felt that day, he did not have a schedule, but he was also at the laying of the foundation stone in 1994 at the big church. He did not get to see it, because only in 2012 the church was blessed to be able to serve in it, even if the works were not yet completed. When he was sick I would take him out very often for a walk with the car. In addition, he was visited by very important people, such as President Emil Constantinescu and the elites of the world Catholic Church," Mariana Roman told us.

Cardinal Alexandru Todea took care, in the last period of his life, to leave as many proofs as possible of the history of the Greek Catholic Church, of the extraordinary role played by the servants of this church in Transylvania and of the persecutions to which its servants were subjected during communism.AGERPRES(RO - author: Dorina Matis, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - editor: Maria Voican)