Here was where in 1879 Gala Galaction, writer, orthodox priest, theology professor at the Cernăuţi and Bucharest universities and the translator of the most appreciated of the Bible in Romanian, was born.
The small building was raised with the help of the contribution of the inhabitants of Dideşti town, in 1978. The house has three rooms where the exhibit is organized. It displays objects, documents and photos from the life and activity of Gala Galaction. Great writer, his short stories and novels have a strong dramatic feel, dominated by the conflict between natural instincts and the perceptions of Christian morality.
Gala Galaction was the alias of Grigore Pișculescu. He was born on April 16th 1879 in Teleorman county, in the family of a peasant married to a priest’s daughter. He also followed this path and was ordained in 1922 and in 1926 he becomes a professor at the Chișinău university. Throughout the inter war period, aside from teaching, he dedicated himself to publicistic activity, having Tudor Arghezis support and edits magazines “Cronica” and “Spicul” in 1915-1918. Then he wrote and published hort stories, novels, travel notes, articles in the main newspapers and magazines of the time, as well as a journal that was returned and published posthumously.
He becomes an ecclesiastic defender for the Râmnic and Argeș dioceses (1909-1922), priest (1922) and missionary of the Bucharest Archdiocese (1922-1926), tenured teacher on the chiar of the Introduction and exegesis of the New testament at the Theology faculty in Chișinău (1926-1941), its dean (1928-1930), teacher of the exegesis of the Old testament at the Theology faculty in Bucharest (1941-1947), member of the Diocese assembly of the Bucharest Archdiocese (from 1954). He published studies about the New testament, articles, meditations, conferences and sermons and between 1928 and 1934 he did, together with pr. prof. Vasile Radu, a new translation of the Bible in Romanian. He travelled to Israel, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Egypt. In 1947 he was elected vicepresident of the Writers’ Union in Romania, deputy in the Grand National Assembly, first class, in 1954. After a cerebral congestion, he was bed bound for two year, dying on March 8th 1961, in Bucharest.
Throughout his life, he obtained many awards and accolades, some of major importance: The Romanian Academy award (1915), The Romanian writers’ society award (1933), The „Meritul Cultural” second class medal (1934), National literary award (1935), National prose award (1942) or the „Meritul Cultural” comandor medal (1947).
The mayor of Jerusalem named a square in his memory, as a sign of appreciation of his contribution to promoting understanding between Christians and Jewish people, including in the timess when man kind was severely challenged.
