St. Cleopas of Sihăstria

He was born Constantine Ilie in 1912 in the county of Botoșani, one of ten children of a pious peasant family. As a young man he kept the sheep of the Sihăstria skete in the forests of Moldavia, reading the lives of the saints in the high pastures.

Tonsured a monk with the name Cleopas, he was chosen while still young to be abbot of Sihăstria, and later helped restore the monastic life of Slatina. His preaching drew such crowds that the suspicion of the new communist state fell on him.

Three times he withdrew into the mountains, living for years as a hermit in the forests of the Carpathians under the pressure of the authorities, before returning at last to Sihăstria, where pilgrims came to him without ceasing.

For decades he received the streams of people who sought his word, answering with a wealth of Scripture, patristic teaching, and homely parable, and his recorded conversations and sermons were gathered and widely read. He reposed at Sihăstria on December 2, 1998.