| Valeriu Gafencu | |
| Birth Date: | 24 January 1921 |
| Birth Place: | Sîngerei, Kingdom of Romania (now in Moldova) |
| Death Place: | Târgu Ocna, Romanian People's Republic |
| Religion: | Romanian Orthodox Christian |
| Parents: | Vasile Gafencu (father) |
Valeriu Gafencu (24 January 1921 – 18 February 1952) was a member of the Iron Guard who was active during the Legionnaires' rebellion. Arrested by the state authorities in 1941, he died 11 years later at Târgu Ocna Prison.
He was declared "Saint of the Prisons" by theologian Nicolae Steinhardt for his "exemplary Christian conduct and devotion to those in suffering", and the Romanian Orthodox Church was reportedly considering his canonization in 2013.[1]
Gafencu was born in 1921 in Sîngerei, at the time a city in Bessarabia, a region in the northeastern part of the Kingdom of Romania (now in the Republic of Moldova). He attended the Ion Creangă High School in Bălți, where Eugen Coșeriu, Sergiu Grossu, Vadim Pirogan, Ovidiu Creangă, and Valentin Mândâcanu were his classmates.[2] Shortly after he graduated in 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina; as a result, Gafencu and his family took refuge in Romania.
Gafencu was declared an honorary citizen of the town of Târgu Ocna in 2009, but the decision was rescinded in 2013 due to his participation in the Legionnaires' rebellion in January 1941.[3] [4]