Cyriacus Nicolau of Neamt

Chiriac Nicolau, born in 1839 at Humulești, was an archimandrite and confessor at Neamț Monastery, known for his charitable works. He fell asleep in 1907. 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.

In the War of Independence of 1877 he was on the battlefield as orderly to a general. The general fell ill and, feeling near death, entrusted him with a sum of money to be used in works of Christian charity. After the war, Sergeant Constantin Chiriac returned home and entered Neamț as a brother. Abbot Timotei, seeing his obedience and zeal, made him a monk, then deacon and priest. The hieromonk Chiriac Nicolau fulfilled with a clear conscience the request of the general who died far from the country and used the money for the relief of the sick and for the schooling of children who could not read.

In 1895 he built a primary school with four classrooms in the village of Vânători in Neamț, still standing today, and endowed it with a library of hundreds of books from the old church presses. He also gave another sum to the public hospital of Târgu Neamț, for the comfort of the sick and some renovations. The rest of the money he distributed to monasteries and churches, for the repose of the deceased man's soul.

In 1890 he was made confessor and archimandrite at Neamț and, for a few years, titular archimandrite of the Diocese of Ismail and the Lower Danube. For almost twenty years he served with devotion, never missing church, counselling and hearing the confession of monks and believers, who had him as a good spiritual father. In 1907 he went to Christ.