favoring Valerian Trifa, a well known Iron Guard member, instead. Trifa had been involved in the 1941 rebellion and had also served for a time as Puiu's secretary during his exile. Declassified documents prove that Puiu had sent letters to both Moldovan and Trifa and the authorities in Bucharest were aware of the correspondence and thus of the danger the former Metropolitan's influence represented. By having him defrocked, they sought to limit that influence. Paradoxically, in 1951, the Romanian secret service (the Securitate) began planning to reach out to Puiu in order to recruit him. The elaborate strategy involved making contact through Orthodox clergymen, blackmailing Puiu's brother and niece, using agents within the Church or members of the Holy Synod. On 20 August 1955, Puiu sent a letter to the Romanian Legation in Paris requesting repatriation. According to Popa, the possibility that this was Puiu's initiative, independent from the Securitate's plan, cannot be ruled out. Romania had just joined the United Nations and was taking steps to repatriate fugitives. However, Popa notes that things moved very fast. Terms were drafted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs as early as 29 August, with a Romanian agent paying a visit to Puiu's home on 26 October. Negotiations between the clergyman and the Romanian authorities continued over the next months. According to an archive document dated November 1955, Puiu asked the communist leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, for the full restoration of his clerical rank and requested that he be named Metropolitan of Moldavia. The demands were so unreasonable that in 1956, the authorities concluded that Puiu was not genuinely interested in returning to Romania. By that time, his influence in the Romanian Orthodox diaspora in Paris had dwindled and the final years of his life were marked by poverty and isolation. Final years and death Teofil Ionescu succeeded Puiu in 1958 as Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Western Europe. In 1972, Ionescu would restore the communion with the Patriarchate in Bucharest, causing the main parish in Rue Saint Jean de Beauvais and most of the Romanian Orthodox worshipers in Paris to pass under the authority of the ROCOR metropolitan of New York. There is evidence that in 1963, Puiu reached out one more time to the Romanian Embassy in Paris to negotiate repatriation. If so, no decisive steps were taken and Puiu died in France in 1964. Popa and Leustean indicate Paris