Supercentenarian Profile

Viorica Vețian

Born:

1916-10-03

Băla, Mureș County

Romania

Current Residence:

Sighișoara, Mureș County

Romania

Viorica Vețian, also known as Sister Maria Rodica, is a Romanian nun and supercentenarian. She is currently the nation’s second-oldest resident, after Iosif Rus.

BIOGRAPHY

Viorica Vețian was born in the commune of Băla in Mureș County, Romania, on 3 October 1916.

She entered the Congregation of the Mother of God (CMD) as a candidate and was ordained on 8 April 1939, in Blaj. She made her temporary vows on 4 January 1942, also in Blaj, followed by her perpetual vows on 15 August 1948, in Jucu de Sus, Cluj. These were among the last solemn vows made before the dissolution of the order. Known thereafter as Sister Rodica, she had a deep love for children and devoted herself to teaching. She taught in Blaj and at the congregation’s primary school in Cluj-Napoca, where she also served as principal in 1945 and 1946.

On the night of 28–29 October 1948, shortly before the outlawing of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania and the arrest of its bishops, the sisters were forcibly removed from their chapel, where they had been praying continuously for an entire day. They resisted throughout much of the night before finally surrendering, exhausted, and being taken to Jibou. The CMD community, housed at Wesselényi Castle in Jibou, remained there under communist supervision until September 1949. Sister Rodica served as superior of the congregation for nearly a year. During this period, new postulants were received into the community and other candidates made their temporary vows.

On 10 September 1949, all the sisters in Jibou were deported to the Orthodox monastery of Bistrița in Vâlcea County, where they were reunited with sisters from the convent in Jucu. The communist authorities attempted to persuade them to renounce their Greek Catholic faith and union with the Roman Catholic Church, offering them the opportunity to remain at the monastery as Orthodox nuns. When these efforts failed, the former community superiors, including Sister Rodica, were transferred to the Orthodox monastery of Dintr-un Lemn in Vâlcea County. After several weeks, having failed to persuade the sisters to convert, the authorities returned them to their families, temporarily confiscating their religious habits.

Sister Rodica returned from the convent in Vâlcea County to her sister’s family in Reghin in November 1949. In 1951, another religious sister joined her there. When the secret police discovered this in 1953, the sister was forced to leave Reghin, while Sister Rodica was repeatedly summoned by the Security Service and pressured to convert to Orthodoxy and become an informer. She refused both demands.

Meanwhile, Sister Rodica worked as an accountant at the consumer cooperative in Reghin, but was dismissed for refusing to cooperate with the secret police. After several attempts, she secured another position with the same cooperative, first in Bátos and later in Breaza. Initially assigned to planting seedlings and other physically demanding work, she was eventually able to return to accounting after an acquaintance, concerned by her exhaustion, helped her obtain an accounting position. When these positions were later eliminated, she returned to Reghin, where she worked as a senior auditor until her retirement.