It is better...

It is better to be persecuted than to persecute; it is better to be crucified than to crucify; it is better to be insulted than to insult; it is better to be slandered than to slander.  Elder Justin (Pârvu) +June 16, 2013 

Fr. Justin (Pârvu) was born in the village of Poiana Larguliu on February 10, 1919; he entered the monastery of Durău in 1936, and in 1939 he enrolled in the Theological Seminary in the Cernica Monastery. He served as a chaplain on the Eastern Front during World War II from 1942-1944, but was imprisoned for political and religious reasons between 1948 and 1964. In 1966 Fr. Justin was received into Secu Monastery, and in 1975 he transferred to Bistrita Monasery. In the autumn of 1991, he placed the foundation stone of Petru Vodă Monastery, where he lived and served as abbot, and in 1999 he began the restoration of a convent for nuns in Paltin.

From the end of March 2013, the stomach cancer that he had secretly suffered for several years metastasized, provoking further medical complications that after martyric torments caused Archimandrite Justin's departure to a better world. Fr. Justin is considered the last of the Romanian elders of the period of communist repression to depart this world. May God give rest to his soul!