Overview
Friday, May 31, 1935, Maglavit village, Dolj county. While out in the field with the sheep, a 17-year-old had a mysterious vision. An old man dressed in white appeared in front of him, levitating 20 cm from the ground, next to a willow tree. Frightened, Petrache Lupu wanted to run away, but tripped and fell. Then, the boy was told to urge the people to repent and to go to the village priest, Nicolae Bobin, to tell him what happened.
Petrache did not dare to listen to the vision, thinking that his mind had played a trick. A week later, on June 7, the old man made his appearance again, but the young man again did not reveal what happened to anyone, for fear that people would consider him crazy and send him to some asylum. On the following Friday, June 14, around 6:00 p.m., the shepherd again had the previous vision. Shortly after Petrache Lupu revealed what had happened to him, his scandal spread around Romania. Pilgrims began to come from all corners of the country, together with the sick, in search of relief from suffering. The newspapers contributed a lot to the popularization of the case, so that the crowd grew from day to day. Near the church where priest Bobin served, a pavilion was built for the young man, in front of which the crowds passed on foot, in carts, carriages or in cars from the city. Petrache Lupu was walked around the country, often being visited by bishops, metropolitans, politicians, both local and foreign. Miracles did not take long to appear. The healers who came to Maglavit or met the healer threw away their crutches and left on their feet, happy, towards home. Because of their faith, many blind people began to see, repenting and following the right path.
For decades afterwards, the name of Petrache Lupu, respectively that of the Dolje municipality Maglavit, were synonymous with the "divine miracle" and the miraculous healings performed here. But also with the influx of pilgrims. In the summer of 1935, in a single day, ten additional overloaded trains left Craiova to transport pilgrims to Maglavit located 15 kilometers from Calafat.
After Romania's entry into the war with the Russians, together with the German allies, Petrache Lupu was taken by plane to the bend of the Don, to sanctify the troops, by the personal order of Marshal Ion Antonescu. It is said that the soothsayer told the army that the war would be lost by the Romanians. After the communists came to power, Petrache Lupu was marginalized, and people visited him, out of fear, only in secret. On the night of August 1, 1952, a car entered the town where the saint spent his days. He was waiting for them in the yard, alert and dressed in clean clothes. They put him in the car, but the car engine didn't want to start, until after Petrache prayed about it. Returning home in October, the security guards picked him up a few more times, without being able to find any guilt in order to send him to the canal. Petrache Lupu was married to Veta, who died in 1966. He remarried, living until 1998, in a house no different from the others in the village. It is interesting that the shepherd who became a saint never took money from the donations made by those who visited him in Maglavit. Neurologist Gheorghe Marinescu and professor Constantin Parhon, who consulted the shepherd, gave the verdict that he was perfectly healthy.
