Callinicus the Hermit of Horaita

Callinicus was a hermit and priest in the first half of the nineteenth century, in a clearing below the summit of Horăiciorul, near Horaița Monastery in Neamț. 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.

The elders say he was a priest, that he struggled there forty years, that he led a holy life and had the gift of wonders. Sick people came to him from the villages and he healed them with fasting and prayer. He had great devotion to the Mother of God: with her icon, as is told, he drove evil spirits out of people, kept wild animals from his garden and overcame passions and cunning thoughts. Wherever he went he carried the icon of the Mother of God.

His struggle was this: he ate once a day, after sunset, practised the Jesus Prayer unceasingly and kept vigil at night with psalms and prostrations. His best-⁠loved occupation was planting and grafting fruit trees. He planted the whole clearing around his cell with apple, plum and walnut trees, and went to Horăicioara Skete and Horaița Monastery to plant and graft trees of all kinds. In autumn he gathered the fruit with joy and gave it to passers-⁠by, saying, as is told, in the name of the Mother of God.

Having reached great old age, he fell ill and took to his bed. The monks of the skete came to carry him down to the monastery, so that he might die there. The elder answered that, with the help of the Mother of God, he would go down on his own. He took the icon of the Most Holy Virgin and walked before all to Horaița, bowed in church, confessed, asked for the Holy Mysteries and, kissing everyone, fell asleep in peace and joy. The place where he struggled is called Callinicus's Clearing.