9/18/2019
Cristian Curte
He received anyone who knocked on the door of his cell—always, at any time. He would hear confessions without stopping, for several days in a row, day and night. No one knew when he slept or ate.
This was where not only lay people, such as simple peasants from the nearby villages, but also monastics, came for advice, prayers and strength in the last years of his life.
All his life, brother Ioan was neither a priest nor a monk, but a simple shepherd.
He was like the bread of God—humble, meek, always trying to help everyone and encourage them. He never thought much of himself and never spared himself. When praised, he would reply that praise was the same as slander.
“Nothing is lost as long as the soul does not abdicate, the head rises again, and faith stands on its feet. Love and trust in God.”
Hundreds of thousands of Romanians had recourse to his priestly stole, for advice and a word of edification, turning a small seaside resort from a place of physical healing into an unseen citadel of the Spirit.
Protosinghel Clement (Păunescu)
He possessed a colossal power to convert people to God by his mere presence.
He was a monk of holy life, a monk of colossal spiritual depth who had led a pure life from a young age.
Two decades ago, two great Elders—Cleopa (Ilie) and Marcu (Dumitrescu)—were living in the apiary of Sihăstria Monastery. The first carried out the ascetic labor of reclusion in the mountains for many years, and the second spent more than twenty years in inhuman conditions in prison. When they met, they began to share their experiences with one another.
Cristian Curte, Monk Chiril (Karthaus)
Fr. Chiril is a German. Though he was born and grew up in Germany, he has lived at Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest for many years. He fell in love with Orthodoxy and Romania and decided to remain there forever, not as a layman but as a monk of one of the most famous monasteries in the capital.
