Elias Cioruta of Cernica

Ilie Cioruța, born Iorgu in 1909 in the village of Vasile Alecsandri, in Tulcea, was a parish priest for fifty years, then a hieromonk at Cernica Monastery, where he served and heard confessions between 1974 and 1997. He fell asleep on 8 January 1997. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He was the son of a family with ten children. Orphaned, he attended the Seminary in Constanța, married, studied Theology in Bucharest and became a priest in Ilfov county, where he shepherded several villages. The Paterikon says he carried out a missionary ministry with much zeal for Christ, taking no payment for services and giving much alms to the poor and sick. Between 1962 and 1964 he was imprisoned by the communist regime, for the zeal with which he served the Church. After his wife's death and the settling of his children, in 1974, after fifty years of pastoral ministry, Father Iorgu left the world and was tonsured a monk at Cernica, with the name Ilie.

For twenty-⁠two years he served as priest and confessor, with devotion, humility and self-⁠denial, raising many spiritual children. He was a man of justice, who did not tolerate injustice. He was always surrounded by believers and the poor. He fasted regularly two or three days, tasting nothing from Thursday to Saturday. Daily he stood at the relics of Saint Callinicus, heard confessions and consoled all and, as is said, drove evil spirits out of people. He often said that on entering the monastery he felt like kissing the stones for happiness. He loved almsgiving much and kept a thick notebook with the names of thousands of people who had given alms to churches, whom he commemorated all his life.

Knowing the day of his end, he left a written will to be buried in the cemetery, without a coffin, among poor people. On 1 January 1997 he left a note for all the monks: Brothers, I am dying, come let us be reconciled. He asked forgiveness of all and fell asleep in peace on 8 January 1997, leaving no property. He left the book A Man of the Altar, published in 1999.