Ion Agârbiceanu

Ion Agârbiceanu (first name also Ioan, last name also Agărbiceanu and Agîrbiceanu; September 12, 1882 – May 28, 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Born among the Romanian peasant class of Transylvania, he was originally an Orthodox, but chose to embrace Eastern Catholicism. Assisted by the Catholic congregation of Blaj, he graduated from Budapest University, after which he was ordained. Agârbiceanu was initially assigned to a parish in the Apuseni Mountains, which form the backdrop to much of his fiction. Before 1910, Agârbiceanu had achieved literary fame in both Transylvania and the Kingdom of Romania, affiliating with Astra cultural society in 1912; his work was disputed between the rival schools of ''Sămănătorul'' and Poporanism. After a debut in poetry, he became a highly prolific author of novels, novellas, and other forms of prose, being rated as "Chekhovian" or "Tolstoyan" for his talents in describing the discreet suffering of common folk.

Agârbiceanu became involved politically with the Romanian National Party, siding with its more radical offshoot, under Octavian Goga. Committed to social and cultural activism in Transylvania, Agârbiceanu spent the 1910s officiating near Sibiu, with a break during World War I that saw him taking refuge in Russia, the Ukrainian People's Republic, and eventually the Moldavian Democratic Republic. He served as a chaplain for the Romanian Volunteer corps, and was decorated for his service. In 1919, Agârbiceanu moved to Cluj, where he lived for most of the remainder of his life. After the war, he involved himself in both the political and cultural life of Greater Romania. He moved between the National Peasants' Party, the People's Party, and the National Agrarian Party, all while remaining engaged with organizing specifically Greek-Catholic interest groups. Already in the 1920s, Agârbiceanu expressed disappointment with the cultural decline he felt was encouraged by an emerging political class, embracing instead radical-right positions and eugenics, while also demanding administrative decentralization and encouraging the peasantry to improve its economic standing. Voted into the Romanian Academy, he served terms in the Assembly of Deputies, and assumed the office of Senate vice president under the National Renaissance Front dictatorship.

As editor and columnist at '' Tribuna'', Agârbiceanu decried Hungarian revisionism and openly supported the politics of King Carol II as a means to solidify union. He was eventually forced out of Northern Transylvania during World War II. He spent his last decade and a half under a communist regime that outlawed his church, an act in which he refused to cooperate. Much of his work, with its transparent Christian moralizing, proved incompatible with the new ideology, and was banned by communist censors; however, especially after 1953, the regime found him useful for its image, and bestowed honors upon him. He was never allowed to publish his complete works, and continued to struggle with his censors during his final years. Agârbiceanu's full contribution has been made available and reappraised since the 1990s, but he endures as a largely forgotten author, with the possible exception of his Apuseni-based novella, ''Fefeleaga''.

Biography

Early life

Born in Cenade village in Transylvania's Alba County (at the time in Alsó-Fehér County), Agârbiceanu was the second of eight children; his parents were Nicolae and Ana (''née'' Olariu). Ion's father and grandfather were both woodcutters, while he believed his great-grandparents were cowherds—as indicated by the surname of his grandfather, Vasile Bouaru, who originated in the Sibiu area. The name ''Agârbiceanu'' came from the family's ancestral village, Agârbiciu.Olimpiu Boitoș, "Ion Agârbiceanu. Schiță bio-bibliografică", in '' Luceafărul'', Issue 10/1942, pp. 353–354 According to various report, at least some members of the family were traditionally Orthodox,"Informațiuni. Restabilirea unității bisericești", in ''Renașterea'', Vol. XIV, Issue 37, September 1936, p. 4 and he was himself originally baptized as such.Justinian Chira, ''Trăiți frumos și-n bucurie'', p. 126. Putna: Editura Nicodim Caligraful, 2014. Writer Ion Breazu argues that Ana Agârbiceanu was not tied to either Orthodoxy of Eastern Catholicism, and instead channeled a religious sentiment shared by both denominations.Breazu, p. 76

Breazu describes the Agârbiceanus as engaged in the economic struggle for Romanian emancipation, with competition structured along ethnic lines. The adversaries were Saxons, Hungarians, and Hungarian Jews, who occupied positions of power: " gârbiceanuwould not spare any sympathy for either one of these groups, in his work as a writer." From about 1900, Nicolae became a respected forester and estate administrator, described upon his death in 1931 as a "cultured peasant". According to the novelist's own notes, his father subscribed to a number of Romanian-language publications that appeared in Transylvania. His mother, although a great lover of stories and storytelling, was illiterate.

Agârbiceanu recalled an idyllic childhood, with summers spent tending to his father's sheep and sleeping in a stick hut. An avid reader of stories by Petre IspirescuIorga (1934), p. 119 and poems by George Coșbuc,Breazu, p. 77 he was also accustomed to prayer books, which would help him deal with his feeling of isolation, once he was made to attend school. He completed the primary and secondary cycles in his native village and in Blaj, graduating from the Superior Gymnasium in 1900. His teachers included Gavril Precup, who introduced Agârbiceanu to world philosophy and the tenets of Romanian nationalism, and Ambrosiu Chețianu, who cultivated his taste for natural sciences.Suciu, p. 2 His later works suggest that, aged eleven, Agârbiceanu was in the Romanian crowd which greeted the Transylvanian Memorandum leaders, arrested by the Hungarian authorities and paraded through Blaj.

During fifth-grade classes in Romanian, Precup noticed Agârbiceanu's skill as the pupil read his own review of Vasile Alecsandri's poem, ''Bărăganul''. His actual debut was a collaboration with '' Unirea'' newspaper. There, Agârbiceanu published a ''feuilleton'' (signed as '' Alfius''), poetry, and, in 1900, the short story "În postul Paștelui" ("At Lent"). Agârbiceanu also served as secretary of the Blaj Literary Society, at the time the city's only Romanian-speaking literary body still tolerated by the Hungarian administration.Tudor Opriș, ''Istoria debutului literar al scriitorilor români în timpul școlii (1820-2000)'', p. 11. Bucharest: Aramis Print, 2002. . See also Brateș, pp. 665–666; Suciu, pp. 2–3 He soon became a correspondent of ''Rĕvașul'', a Cluj-based newspaper, signing his first pieces there with the pen name ''Alfius'', then as ''Agarbi'' or ''Potcoavă'' ("Horseshoe").Mihail Straje, ''Dicționar de pseudonime, anonime, anagrame, astronime, criptonime ale scriitorilor și publiciștilor români'', p. 9. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1973. One of his essays there, published when he was aged twenty, was a critique of social democracy (defining its adherents as "enemies of Jesus Christ ndof any people, save the Jews"), with some praise reserved for Christian socialism as a non-revolutionary alternative. Agârbiceanu also noted that the Hungarian Social Democrats could not prevail among the Romanians, despite the success of propagandists in "duping" some destitute Transylvanians: "When has our salvation ever come from a kike, and not even from a kike, but from any sort of foreigner?" In other pieces, Agârbiceanu denounced publicist Imre Salusinszky for his claims that social democracy was compatible with the Romanians' Christian faith.

Agârbiceanu formally converted to Eastern Catholicism as a youth, but, according to his own testimony, was secretly an atheist during much of his adolescence. The Blaj-based Făgăraș and Alba Iulia Archdiocese arranged for Agârbiceanu to study at the theology faculty of Budapest University between 1900 and 1904.Nemeș-Vintilă, p. 4 As he himself confessed later in life, it was here that he became truly convinced of his faith and calling, with a self-described theophany.Suciu, p. 3 It was also at this stage that he became fluent in Hungarian, having already picked up German and Latin at Blaj, and continuing his individual study of Italian and French.Bădiliță, p. 58 His reading list widened to cover the classics of modern French and Russian literature—absorbing themes and elements of style from Balzac, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, and Count Tolstoy. Publishing more works in '' Tribuna'' and '' Familia'', he soon became "the most constant presence" in '' Luceafărul'' of Budapest, which hosted in 1912 his first version of the novel ''Legea trupului'' ("The Law of the Flesh"). Agârbiceanu returned to Blaj after his graduation and supervised the local boys' boarding school, working there during the 1904–1905 academic year. Urged by friends and receiving a church scholarship, he returned to Budapest to study literature. He spent just one semester there, during which he also taught primary school catechism. In March 1906, he married Maria Reli Radu, the daughter of an archpriest from Ocna Mureș.

Also in 1906, following an ordination ceremony held on Easter Sunday, Agârbiceanu was appointed parish priest in Bucium, in the Apuseni Mountains. For four years, he observed the difficult lives of the mountain dwellers and the problems encountered in the nearby gold mines. As parish administrator, he took steps to increase the pay of schoolteachers; from 1907, he was also curator of the village library, an endowment of the Reunion of Romanian Women. During this time, he wrote several notices in the magazine '' Ramuri'', later published as ''În întuneric'' ("Into the Darkness", 1910), the novella ''Fefeleaga'', V. M.
''Alba: Casa în care a locuit eroina nuvelei "Fefeleaga", distrusă de un incendiu''
HotNews.ro, July 9, 2014 and the novel ''Arhangelii'' ("The Archangels"), all of them based on the mining experience. He also started writing frequently for literary magazines that included ''Luceafărul'', ''Unirea'' and '' Lupta''. His other literary works of the period include ''De la țară'' ("From the Countryside", 1906), ''În clasa cultă'' ("In the Cultured Class", 1909), ''Două iubiri'' ("Two Loves", 1910), ''Prăpastia'' ("The Abyss", 1912), and a collection of ''Schițe și povestiri'' ("Sketches and Short Stories", 1912).Compiled from lists in Lovinescu (p. 190), and Nemeș-Vintilă (p. 5)

Agârbiceanu visited Bucharest, the Old Kingdom capital, in 1906, and sent enthusiastic travel notes for ''Unirea''. At the kingdom's Jubilee Expo, he chanced upon critic Eugen Lovinescu, who recalled him as visibly a "poet's soul ..descended from his mountains into the citadel of our worries, pride, and aspirations."Zaciu, p. 40 He became a regular contributor to the Bucharest nationalist review ''Sămănătorul'', which gave ''De la țară'' a sonorous welcome,Lovinescu, p. 188 and later to ''Sămănătorul''s leftist rival, ''Viața Românească''. As Agârbiceanu recalled some fifty years later, his indifference to the ideological clash between the two clubs caused him to be publicly reprimanded by Nicolae Iorga of ''Sămănătorul'', who never fully pardoned his transgression. With his occasional investigations of life in the Old Kingdom before and after the 1907 peasants' revolt, Agârbiceanu also turned to critiquing its institutions. One of his first contributions in Iorga's '' Neamul Românesc'' magazine was an article celebrating King Carol I's decision to pardon the rebels, and joining in the array of voices demanding more, and more substantial, reforms. From 1909, after reconciling with Iorga, he was also one of the regular writers for that magazine.

PNR activism and World War I

From 1910 to 1916 (nominally to 1919), Agârbiceanu was parish priest at Orlat in Szeben County. He traveled frequently to neighboring villages—including Gura Râului, where he met and became close friends with literary critic Ilarie Chendi.Dumitru Ioan Arsenie, "Pe la Gura Râului au trecut mulți 'oameni de seamă'", in ''Transilvania'', Issue 6/2005, p. 15 During this interval, Agârbiceanu also became interested in professional politics, as a member of Austria-Hungary's Romanian National Party (PNR). Ideologically, he supported PNR youth leader Octavian Goga, his colleague at ''Luceafărul'' and ''Tribuna''. In 1910, he followed Goga as he parted from the PNR and launched his own independent faction. As reported at the time by Chendi, Agârbiceanu was fully committed to Goga's radical-nationalist agenda, to the point where anyone who had earned Goga's favors could also count on Agârbiceanu's loyalty. Agârbiceanu reputedly refused to write for the more centrist PNR newspaper, ''Românul'' (which favored boycotting elections for the Diet of Hungary, rather than political confrontation), even after being offered an increase in pay; the accuracy of this claim was publicly denied by the PNR leader, Vasile Goldiș, who went on to accuse Agârbiceanu of "betrayal".

In November 1912, the two groups reached an uneasy settlement: Agârbiceanu headlined a ''Românul'' announcement which promised that Goga's men would return to writing for the PNR's mainstream press. He was subsequently allowed to join the editorial boards of both ''Românul'' and ''Poporul Român''. For his parallel literary activity, Agârbiceanu was elected a corresponding member of Astra in 1912, and was promoted to full membership in 1925."Agârbiceanu, Ion"
entry in Mircea Păcurariu, ''Dicționarul Teologilor Români''. Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 1996 In 1911, he had also been awarded the Romanian Academy's Eliade-Rădulescu Prize for ''În întuneric''; Anton Naum authored the committee's favorable report. However, his literature was also becoming the focus of attacks by the Neoclassical novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu, who, as part of a larger critique of Poporanism, alleged that Agârbiceanu was unreadable.

By the time World War I broke out, Agârbiceanu had three sons and a daughter, including Ion Jr, the future physicist. Anca Aldea
"Ion I. Agârbiceanu"
in ''Jurnalul Național'', May 24, 2008 During 1914, the first year of war, he finally published ''Arhanghelii'', as well as the stories in ''De la sate'' ("From the Villages").Nemeș-Vintilă, p. 5 These were followed, in 1916, by a work of Christian theology, ''Din viața preoțească'' ("From Priestly Life"). Ilie Rad
"Ion Agârbiceanu inedit"
in ''Apostrof'', Vol. XXIX, Issue 4 (335), 2018 In September 1916, during the Battle of Transylvania, his Orlat house was shelled by the German Army; Agârbiceanu fled Austria-Hungary with his family, following the Romanian Army on its hasty retreat. Their first destination was Râmnicu Vâlcea in the Old Kingdom; they then headed for Roman in Western Moldavia. Similarly exiled and sheltered, Goga put out the propaganda paper ''Gazeta Ostașilor'', with contributions from both Agârbiceanu and Iorga; after a hiatus caused by the fall of Bucharest in December, it was reissued as ''România'' in February 1917.

Alongside other Transylvanians whom the Romanian authorities wished to protect from the likelihood of being captured by the Austro-Hungarian Army, the family was evacuated to Russia in August 1917. As reported by Onisifor Ghibu, on August 4–5 they were still stranded with their train at Ungheni.Săndulescu, p. 154 The Agârbiceanus finally settled near Yelisavetgrad in Kherson Governorate. The writer personally witnessed the life of Romanians in southern Ukraine, leaving notes on their exceptional agricultural skills, and implying that they were seen as a superior caste in Kherson's society. He proposed that the " Moldavians" he encountered here were Romanians of the " Nordic type"; though they never self-defined as "Romanian", and were "devoid of any geographical knowledge", they were fully aware of their kinship with the refugee group. He also noticed that they were generally much better fed than Romanians of Bihar and Máramaros, with fresh bread consumed each day and no signs of rickets. While there and alongside other refugee Transylvanians, Agârbiceanu took part in a choir organized by Nicolae Colan, a future bishop in the Orthodox Church. In researching Romanian folklore as found in the villages outside Yelisavetgrad, he introduced local Moldavians to the ''Păcală

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