Eleutherius the Hermit of Sihla

Eleutherius, born at Ismail, was the husband of Saint Theodora of Sihla, later a monk and hieroschemamonk, a hermit near her cave, in the first decades of the eighteenth century. Sihla Skete was raised over his grave, before 1741. 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 youth he lived a few years in lawful marriage with Theodora. They had no children, and his wife went into monastic life at Vărzărești Monastery and then withdrew into the wilderness, in the Buzău Mountains. He then became a monk at a skete in the Buzău region. There he learned the craft of struggle from the great hesychasts of the place, received priesthood and served day and night in the church.

Later, learning that Theodora had withdrawn to the Neamț Mountains, he went after her. He reached Sihăstria Skete, wandered among the hermits of the Sihla Mountains and came upon her cave, a short time after she had passed to her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Sighing much for his holy wife, he did not return to the monastery of his vows. He made himself a small cell below the rocks of Sihla, near Theodora's cave, and became a known hermit in those parts. He kept vigil day and night in prayer, with fasting and tears, served the Liturgy and awaited release from the bonds of the body.

For almost ten years he stayed in that wilderness and passed to the Lord in peace in the first decades of the eighteenth century. He was buried in the hermits' cemetery in the clearing. After a few years the Cantacuzino boyar family raised a wooden skete over his grave, in honour of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. So Sihla Skete came into being, before 1741.