Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban

CazabanBogdan Tataru-Cazaban is ambassador of Romania to the Holy See since 2010. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Bucharest in patristic and medieval philosophy and is a founding member of the Institute for the history of religions at the Romanian Academy. He has been a visiting professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest. His other scientific and editorial work has been in the fields of history of Christianity, Thomistic studies, French phenomenology, among others. He is the author of several books on philosophy and theology and has also translated into Romanian Saint Augustine, Boethius, Hugo of Saint Victor, Nicholas of Cusa, R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, and E. Lévinas.


Persecution for Christ’s Sake as the bond of Communion.  The Monk Nicolae Steinhardt and his Diary of Happiness

Steinhardt incarnated nobility of spirit in a world that seemed downtrodden forever and confidence in humanity in a world disfigured by hatred and resentment. He was a knight of the absolute in a society undermined by betrayals and duplicity. As a reader of Proust, Tocqueville, Chesterton, S. Weil, Valery, Bernanos, he introduced into the way the Orthodox faith, with its immutable rhythms, is lived a provocative freshness, a new style, a profoundly modern authenticity. He was converted in a communist prison and later became a monk in northern Transylvania. With Stăniloae, the great neo-patristic theologian, and Scrima, the theologian of ecumenical dialogue, Steinhart illustrates one of the facets of Romanian Orthodoxy in the twentieth century. It is no accident that John Paul II cited him during his visit to Bucharest: (Among the numerous witnesses to Christ I wish to mention the monk of Rohia, Nicu Steinhart, an extraordinary figure of a believer and a man of culture who perceived in a special way the immense common riches of the Christian Churches”.