Blessed Vladimir Ghika, Martyr and Guard of Honor
Vladimir Ghika was born in Constantinople on Christmas Day, 1873. He came from a princely dynasty that ruled over Moldavia and Wallachia, the two principalities that formed Romania, before the latter was recognized as a state by the Ottoman Empire in 1866. His father, Prince Ioan Ghika, worked for the Empire as a Romanian ambassador, as Romania remained dependent on the Ottomans at the time—it would not be established as the Kingdom of Romania until 1881. Thus, young Vladimir spent his childhood marked by the successive disintegration of empires and the Russo-Turkish conflict. The precursor of ecumenism in the Church Raised in the Orthodox faith, he discovered Catholicism during his studies in Toulouse, then in Paris, and finally in Rome, with the Dominicans of the Angelicum.
He officially became a Catholic in 1902 and obtained a doctorate in theology. Vladimir was convinced that unity among Christians was possible. It was not until the age of 50, in 1923, that he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Paris. He was appointed to the Church of the Strangers on Rue de Sèvres, which has since become the Church of Saint Ignace. The Pope granted him permission to celebrate Mass according to both the Latin and Byzantine rites. He joined the Guard of Honor and became an ardent promoter of its values. He made countless conversions and would become the spiritual father of many priests, including Father Caffarel, founder of the Teams of Our Lady. Alongside the greatest and the smallest, whether priest or layman, in his own country, in Paris, or in Rome, he left his mark on the interwar period with his charitable actions. He adapted to every situation in which God placed him. He was as close to the great, such as renowned philosophers and poets, as he was to the poor rag-pickers of the Villejuif slums.
He was also close to Pope Pius X, who commissioned him to work for the unity of the Church in the West and the East. He mobilized on all fronts. Deeply attached to the divine presence in the Eucharist, he participated in several international Eucharistic Congresses, such as those in Japan, Sydney, Carthage, and Buenos Aires. At the dawn of World War II, he obtained permission to return to his native country. For several years, he worked in Bucharest to care for Poles fleeing the Nazi occupation. In the religious sphere, he established the Daughters of Charity in Romania and the Carmelite convent in Japan. He also founded his own congregation, whose intuitions echoed those of the new communities. A Martyr’s Destiny At the end of World War II, he saw the spread of communism in Romania, and, true to his kind heart, he chose to stay to help the victims of the regime and the poorest. He devoted himself selflessly to his compatriots.
But in 1952, at the age of 79, he was arrested after sending documents to the Vatican revealing the extent of the persecution of the Greek Catholic Church. Accused of spying for an imperialist power (the Vatican), and after a sham trial, he was sentenced with five other priests to Jilava Prison near Bucharest. His torturers, ignoring his age, deprived him of sleep, insulted him, brutalized him, and tortured him until he bled. Despite this, he remained an exemplary witness of gentleness and kindness among his fellow prisoners, who would later testify to the depth and power of his faith. Exhausted after two years of harrowing detention, he was finally taken to the prison infirmary where he gave up his soul to God on May 16, 1954. Recognition and Beatification His courage and infinite charity towards his brothers in misfortune made him a respected figure among Catholics and Orthodox Christians, both in France and Romania. His beatification process began in 1991 in the Catholic Diocese of Bucharest.
Closed in 2003 and then studied by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the decree on his martyrdom and future beatification was signed on March 27, 2013, by Pope Francis. On August 31, 2013, Vladimir Ghika was beatified at Saint Joseph Cathedral in Bucharest. He is celebrated every year on May 16, the day of his death. Relics belonging to her were placed in the new altar of Notre Dame de Paris on December 8, 2024, along with the relics of another Guard of Honor, those of Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat.