Testimony of Nun Ierusalima
The road leading from Sebes runs along the Pianu valley among the serene hills that now, in summer, look as if they have shrunk from heat. But if you wander along their gentle slopes, you will be comforted by the shade of the Sureanu Mountains. Besides, you won’t need to climb the peaks, because the village of Strungari and the monastery of the same name are located below, at the very foot of the mountains. It’s almost like the gates of paradise, nestled deep in a green forest that crosses the road and hugs them in a sweet embrace.
The monastery had been founded in recent years, but the shepherd Ioan knew about it decades before that. Foreseeing with the eyes of a spirit capable of penetrating not only space but also time, he said to his disciple Nicolae, pointing with his hand from the porch of his hut:
“There will be a big monastery here, a big one!”
And it did happen! The Lavra stretched obediently at the foot of the hill, while brother Ioan found eternal rest inside it.
To get to his cell, you have to climb a mountain slope. My guide Nicolae remembers the day when he first crossed its threshold as if it were yesterday.
He lived in poverty, but I never found anywhere else the quiet and the peace I experienced there
“It was a simple cell with bare wooden floors, no floor mat; but in a corner facing east brother Ioan placed our Lord Jesus crucified. There were always the Bible, the Hook of Hours, and the Psalter lying on his table. And that’s it! A bare planked cot was covered with a sheepskin coat, the kind shepherds usually wore. He lived in poverty, but I had never experienced such silence and peace as I felt inside his place.
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. Among them was Mother Ierusalima, who for many decades bore the obedience of abbess of the Ramet monastery.
“I saw brother Ioan for the first time in the cell of Fr. Varsanufie (Stirban) from the Strungari monastery who was serving in our Ramet monastery in recent years. We called him ‘the shepherd’ or ‘brother Ioan the shepherd.’ He spoke little, but when he spoke, he’d get to the bottom of your heart. His heart cherished a priceless treasure. But the locals from his village failed to understand him, and said that he’s not mentally well.
“He was a truly humble man who never made a nuisance of himself. He lived in seclusion because he prayed all the time, so it wasn’t easy to get up close and personal with him. It took some time for him to begin to trust me. It didn’t happen suddenly, or overnight. I was drawn to men of God like him from young age, but brother Ioan had something holy, something I can’t explain with words.
“He possessed the gift of clairvoyance. Following the death of Fr. Dometie (Manolache), our spiritual counselor at Ramet, he became for me a pillar of fire in the monastery. But he lived far away in his cell in Strungari (sixty seven kilometers away), and whenever I struggled greatly at our monastery, unable to overcome obstacles myself, I used to stand to pray and to cry out, “Lord, bring our shepherd, bring brother Ioan here!”
“I never sent for him because I had no one to send, but he always came! He knew in spirit that I looked for his help. He'd come and ask me:
“‘Well, but why are you afraid? Your Holiness, you needn’t be afraid, because you are to bear many hardships. You bear a heavy cross, but you will find the strength to bear it, because Christ helps you. He gave it to you!’
“I know for sure he was a man of God, an ascetic, and a saint. More holy than many monastics.”
Mother Anastasia is the sister of Mother Ierusalima. When brother Ioan was alive, she often followed his advice. This was how she learned of the gifts of grace that God had bestowed upon him.
“We were talking with him in his cell, and suddenly he says:
“‘What’s that sound, Mother?’
“‘There is no sound!’
“I heard nothing, as we sat in deathlike silence.
“‘I heard a car, Mother.’
“Some time had passed and we see our little monastery car with a canvas top pulling up. He foresaw it from afar, in spirit.
“There was another time when we were talking with him in the monastery, and then he says:
“‘You see how these nuns are walking here on the ground? I can see through them as if a mirror reflection! Many among them want to leave...’
“What he said came true later, because he saw their desire to leave in their hearts.
“He was very strict with himself. He fasted so-so much, I think he didn’t eat for days on end. But then, he had a cat—who always looked fat and beautiful. When someone gave brother Ioan a piece of sausage, he would feed it to his cat but would say that he ate it himself.”
To Heaven, wearing the traditional clothing
Blessed Ioan the shepherd Blessed Ioan learned of the date of his death long before it came and told his close friends about it. So, Nicolae recalls what had happened a year before his death.
“He shared the exact date when he was to depart unto the Lord:
“‘Brother, remember that I will die on January 7, the feast of St. John the Baptist.’
“He said this in 1994.”
“One of his followers, Dumitru, was even summoned in spirit to come to witness his departure to Heaven.
“He told me long before his death that when he dies, I will be there to dress him in burial clothes. He also told me how he was to be dressed, as he had prepared traditional Romanian clothing for himself in advance, the folk dress he had been wearing for a long time. I promised to do just that, but I also mentioned that my job always keeps me on the move, I travel here and there, and I will never know if I can make it in time.
“‘You will, as long as you also make at least a tiny bit of effort, not just me.’
“I said:
“‘Amen! So be it!’
“What else could I say? Then, years went by, year after year, seven or eight, I don't know how many have passed. So, in 1995, I was on business in the skete at Valie Popii, and one morning I woke up choked in emotions. I didn't tell anyone, besides, there was nothing to say, only that I felt something was happening. I thought that maybe it had to with things at home, something had happened there... So, it was like that all day long.
“The next day, I went to the priest and said that I need to go home. When I returned home, my wife told me that I had a call from Strungari and I needed to see the hermit right away. That’s when I realized that he sent for me, and so I went there. I came there about four in the morning and brother Ioan told me that he needed a doctor. He also said:
“‘Follow closely where you are going and what you are doing, because I will die on my Name Day.’
Cross on brother Ioan’s grave he made himself
“The doctor came, checked him, and said that he was to live a bit longer, that he wasn’t dying yet; but I knew already that this was not true. And then it all happened just as brother Ioan had foretold.
“On his Name Day, the feast of St. John the Baptist, I came with Fr. Ioan (Paven), the abbot of the Afteia monastery, to administer Holy Unction to him. But he was already been between life and death. I took a candle, placed it in his hand, and he died in my arms. I clothed him, just as he had told me many years earlier.”
Before his coffin was lowered into the frozen ground, birds came flying to him from all over the forest
The first days of 1995 saw heavy snow showers. The roads were snowed in so much that a car could hardly get through snowdrifts. But in spite of everything, brother Ioan’s close disciples were able to come to his funeral. There was just a handful of people who saw his last miracle: Before the coffin was lowered into the frozen ground, birds from all over the forest came flying to bid farewell to him. The flock circled gracefully above the coffin and then settled on an elderberry bush near the gaping grave, accompanying the entire funeral service with their chirping. This was how the birds, in their own fashion, were saying goodbye to the saint who watched for them all his life.
Source: Formula AS
Sayings of the Blessed Ioan David
The grave of the Blessed Ioan Strungari in the Strungari monastery
A man who uses flattery with you is really dangerous, for he may become your deadly enemy, because you cannot tear off his mask.
He who tells everything he knows—knows little and is a fool.
A main, integral part of man is faith. If you don’t have faith, you don’t see.
Fire can only be kindled by fire, whereas you can only gain the heart with the heart.
Make no doubt: what you cannot achieve by love, you would never achieve by strictness and force.
O Lord! Ascetic labors, endeavors, I did see; but love—not so much.
The greatest theology is to know God and talk with Him, and not to talk about God based on what you have learned
The greatest theology is to know God and talk to Him, not to talk about God based on what you have learned.
The word “friend” means that he will lay down his soul, he will die for you.
A monk who gives way to anger will also be unable to control his passions.
Pray, whenever you sit idle, or when you travel.
Don’t count the prayer beads, but make prostrations (bow down), as many of them as you can, and when you can’t do anymore, do some more.
Alas! I’ve been neither a layman nor a monk, at least in some measure.
Seek God!
I’d rather have my heart restrained than have knowledge of taking control of the space of my heart.
