Petru Dugulescu (; November 18, 1945 – January 3, 2008) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

pastor, poet, and politician. A member of the

Baptist Union of Romania The Union of Christian Baptist Churches in Romania () is a Baptists, Baptist Christian denomination in Romania. It is affiliated with the Romanian Evangelical Alliance, the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance. The headquart ...

and a representative of the

Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party The Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (, PNȚCD) is an agrarianism, agrarian and Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in Romania, political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor of t ...

(PNȚ-CD), he played a part in the 1989 Revolution, being among the organisers of protests in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

Biography

Born in

Chelmac Conop () is a commune located in Arad County, Romania. Conop is situated at the southern foot of , in the Mureș River Couloir. The commune stretches over and it is composed of five villages: Belotinț (''Belotinc''), Chelmac (''Maroseperjes''), ...

Arad County Arad County () is an administrative division ( județ) of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crișana and few villages in Banat. The administrative cente ...

, Dugulescu graduated from the

Baptist Theological Seminary Baptist Theological Seminary is a Baptist seminary located in Jagannaickpur, Church Square, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is affiliated with the Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars. History The Seminary was founded in ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, and became a pastor, while authoring works of

Christian poetry Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, whil ...

. During a period when the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

engaged in the persecution of Baptists, he was kept under surveillance by the secret police (the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

). The latter institution pressured him to stop preaching, and threatened that he was to suffer a car accident were he to refuse; Dugulescu refused to comply.Ramet, p.279 In September 1985, an unmarked bus crashed into the car he was driving, causing the pastor to suffer multiple fractures. Dugulescu's autobiography, ''Ei mi-au programat moartea'' ("They Programmed My Death", translated into English under the title ''Repenters''), details this interval and includes his own account of the events. Following the Revolution, Petru Dugulescu joined the PNȚ-CD, and was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

for

Timiș County Timiș () is a county (''județ'') of western Romania on the border with Hungary and Serbia, in the historical regions of Romania, historical region of Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the westernmost and the largest county in Ro ...

during the 1992 suffrage, and again in the 1996 legislative election. He served on the Committee for Human Rights, Religious Affairs and National Minority Issues, as well as on the Committee for Foreign Policy. He was the founder and president of Charity Foundation Jesus the Hope of Romania and Onesimus Brothers House for

street children Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids, or urchins; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers ...

. Dugulescu turned in his last book (''Democrație și Persecuție'', "Democracy and Persecution") for publication on 20 December 2007. On the afternoon of 3 January 2008 he suffered a heart attack and died in Timișoara.

Notes

References

*
Profile at the Chamber of Deputies site
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dugulescu, Petru 1945 births 2008 deaths People from Arad County Baptist writers Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party politicians People of the Romanian revolution Romanian Protestant clergy Romanian dissidents Romanian male poets Romanian Baptists 20th-century Baptist ministers 21st-century Baptist ministers 20th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian philanthropists 20th-century Romanian memoirists 20th-century Romanian male writers

Biography

See also

Notes

References