Dionysius the Hermit of the Buzau Mountains

Dionysius, called the Spinner, was one of the best-⁠known hermits of Fundătura in the Buzău Mountains in the second half of the fourteenth 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.

His name comes from the work by which he earned his food, the spinning of wool, a common occupation of the hermits of those mountains. The wool was brought to him by a disciple from the villages. The Paterikon says that by the grace of Christ he reached freedom from the passions and that he carved a cave in a hard-⁠to-⁠climb rock, four metres above the ground, where he made a small prayer chapel.

He lived there for more than thirty years, enduring the winter cold, damp, hunger and, as the account says, fearsome temptations. It is told that he drove unclean spirits out of people and knew things to come, and that many came to ask him for a word of benefit.

His rule was simple. During the week he laboured alone, in prayer, fasting and guarding of the mind. On Sunday he came down from the cave and received Communion at the church of Fundătura Hermitage, then went back up and drew the ladder up after him. The place where he rested his ladder is still known today. He raised several disciples, who also became renowned hermits, and his cell greatly helped the spread of hesychast life in the Buzău Mountains.