[2] He was beaten until his death in the communist regime's jails for refusing to abandon his Greek-Catholic faith and the United Romanian Church.

[1] Being a man of dialogue and sincere goodwill, therefore wrongly considered compliant by the regime, he was even offered, in exchange for his "conversion", to become Orthodox patriarch of Bucharest.

On 10 May 1949 he was taken to the Interior Ministry, held in isolation and tortured on the orders of General Alexandru Nicolschi, a Securitate senior officer.

Initially, authorities ordered the body to be burned, but Aftenie was buried at Bellu Cemetery, following a service held by a Roman Catholic priest[18] from the Bucharest Bărăția and he conducted the rites in secret several days after Aftenie was buried by night under the eyes of the Securitate secret police.

Another priest brought a cross permitted by the communist authorities at his grave with his initials and the year of his death several days after that written: "VA = 1950".

In 1990, a white marble tombstone with a picture of the bishop was erected for him; his grave became a place of pilgrimage and is adorned with candles and flowers, he is called for help and assistance.

[23][24] On 19 March 2019 Pope Francis approved the beatification of Aftenie and six other Greek-Catholic martyr bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century.

[25][26] On 25 March it was announced that Pope Francis himself would beatify Aftenie and the other six bishops on 2 June 2019 at Blaj's Liberty Field.