Blessed Vladimir Ghika

After a short biography of this blessed contemporary to be discovered, this booklet offers us many prayers related to this Romanian priest who was trained in France and who lived part of his life in this country.

Vladimir Ghika was born on December 25, 1873 in Constantinople, where his father was a diplomat, into a princely family of Romania. Baptized and confirmé in the Orthodox Church, the religion of his parents, he arrives in 1879 in France, his future country of election to which he is already linked by his mother. As a student in Toulouse and then in Paris, he acquired a subtle and profound human and spiritual formation that opened him to the treasures of the Catholic Church, which he joined in 1902. He undertook ecclesiastical studies in Rome which concluded with a doctorate in theology, and much later, in 1923, with priestly ordination for the diocese of Paris.
He carried out many diplomatic, intellectual and apostolic activities at the same time, and exercised his ministry in Paris, where his life was nourished by many spiritual friendships and many trips to Rome, Australia, Japan, Argentina, etc....
The Second World War surprised him in a Romania that was later subjected to communist forces. Soon perceived as an obstacle to the affirmation of Marxist ideology, he is arrested and imprisoned near Bucharest. Two years later, in May 1954, he died at the age of eighty from the consequences of his detention.
He is celebrated on May 16.

"He who strips himself for others puts on Christ".

White hair and beard, very soft eyes, the head a little bent forward, his silhouette devoid of thickness gave an impression of weariness and fragility. One expected to see him stumbling at any moment.

One had to see him walking with his even and supple mountain walk to understand that this weakling was tireless and that he would only stop serving and blessing when he entered, worn out with a rope, into the very life of his God. His weakness was real, however, but it mysteriously became within him a duce and irresistible strength. Nothing was uncalculated but his gait.

He seemed to be waiting, available like a boat, all flying outside, watching for the right wind, I mean the call of providence in all its forms.
- Count Pierre de briey.