Andronicus Popovici of Noul Neamt

Andronic Popovici, born in 1820 at Lungani, near Iași, was an archimandrite, confessor and co-⁠founder with Teofan Cristea, in 1863, of Noul Neamț Monastery in Bessarabia. He fell asleep in 1893, after sixty-⁠two years of service. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

He was the son of the priest Ioan Popovici. He entered the community of Neamț Monastery at eleven, in 1831, as he himself testified. For five years he learned letters, the typikon, psaltic music and bookbinding and passed through all the monastery's obediences. In 1836 he was tonsured a monk. After fifteen more years he was ordained priest and named sacristan and confessor of the community; he was gentle, silent, zealous for church, obedient in all and a lover of labour. The monastery archive for 1855 lists his obediences: sacristan, bookbinder, at the nuns' guesthouse, ten years at the dependency of Ocea, at the cowshed, the bakery, the wine cellar, cook, disciple to the elders Serafim, Nichifor and Narcis and, at Secu, for thirteen and a half years cantor, sacristan and typikarios.

He had the school of obedience and humility: he did everything he was told, without grumbling, and cut off his own will with joy. He was sent several times with his uncle, the monk Lavrentie, to carry books printed at the monastery to the Romanian brothers in Transylvania, across the mountains, and to churches and sketes in Moldavia. In 1861 he was named abbot at Sihăstria Skete, then at Secu Monastery, where he made renewals and trained disciples. He wrote the History of the Neamț and Secu Monasteries, in two volumes, ending with a note of humility.

In 1863 he went with the hieroschemamonk Teofan Cristea to the lavra's dependency at Tighina, called Chițcani, where they founded Noul Neamț. The monastery became in a short time so large and well-⁠ordered that it caught up with its mother. Andronic was abbot there for a few years, loved and sought by monks and believers. He fell asleep in 1893 and was buried at Noul Neamț, leaving hundreds of spiritual children and several monasteries and sketes renewed by him.