“I will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth...”

Ioan Bărbuș (1918–2001) is the protagonist of this story of love and resilience after 17 years in prison, set against the backdrop of the first Romanian translation of “The Way.”

01/17/2026

In this video, his daughter Anca recounts how Ioan was 29 years old and about to be married when he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison in 1947. After a brief respite, he was arrested and sentenced again, this time to 15 years.

In 1964, his long journey through various Romanian prisons under the communist regime came to an end. He was able to rebuild his life in part: he married and his two daughters were born. But he was never allowed to return to his work as a lawyer, nor could he escape the constant surveillance of the Securitate.

During those years, Ioan, who was a Catholic of the Eastern rite, deepened his conviction that the first witness Christians must give is work done well.

He read and meditated on The Way (first published in Romanian in 1969) which shed light on his own life and helped him face the future with a supernatural outlook, in harmony with the faith he lived by all his life.

Printed | document generated automatically from https://opusdei.org/en-za/article/testimony-the-way-prison-communism-romania/ (01/17/2026)

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