Barsanuphius the Hermit of Sihastria

Varsanuphius was abbot of Sihăstria Skete in Neamț at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, the one who received Saint Theodora of Sihla and revealed her cave in the early eighteenth century. 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 lived a choice life and was honoured by the fathers of the skete and the hermits around. He received Theodora at the skete and entrusted her to the hieroschemamonk Paul, to place her in the wilderness, in the forests of Sihla. He gave rest in his community to the hermits of the forest, gave them the Body and Blood of the Lord and what they needed, and at other times visited them at their huts and sent brothers from the skete to look after the sick and carry them food.

When the name of Saint Theodora had been forgotten completely, tradition says that Varsanuphius was the one chosen by God to reveal her cave. Seeing the birds of the sky carrying crumbs of bread from the refectory toward Sihla, he sent two brothers to follow them, and so they found her. He at once appointed a confessor to commune her and to bury her in the cave, at Sihla.

Under him Sihăstria Skete lived the choicest period of flowering in its history, being counted among the great hermitages of Moldavia, such as Pocrov, Vorona, Agapia Veche, Rarău and the Sihăstria of Ceahlău. At the start of the eighteenth century they numbered more than twenty hermits, who lived in fasting, silence, obedience and unceasing prayer. Varsanuphius raised many disciples, passed to the Lord in peace and was buried beside the church.