Elias Vulpe

Ilie Vulpe, born in 1851 in Orhei county, was a hieroschemamonk and one of the most sought-⁠after confessors of Mount Athos, for many years a guide of Romanian, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian monks. He fell asleep on 8 December 1928. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

His parents, Ilie and Melania, gave him a choice upbringing. In 1879 he went to the Holy Mountain and became a monk at the Romanian Skete of Lacu. Seeing his zeal and wisdom, in 1881 they gave him priesthood. In 1894 he bought the cell of Saint John the Baptist, at the place called Colciu, on the estate of Vatopedi Monastery, renewed it and gathered five disciples: Eftimie, Andrei, Paisie, Gherasim and the hieromonk Ioan Guțu, forming a known spiritual family. His struggle was silence and unceasing prayer; he was a known practitioner of the prayer of the heart. Serving the Liturgy, he was content with Communion and the prosphora and took food only on Saturday and Sunday. When not serving, he ate once a day, except Wednesday and Friday, when he ate nothing. He slept very little and read Scripture and the words of the Fathers daily.

The Paterikon describes him as the father of love and gentleness, known throughout Athos: welcoming, merciful, without malice, like a child, and wise in speech. For more than thirty years he was one of the most skilled confessors of Athos, guiding hundreds of spiritual children. One who was ashamed he encouraged, saying that he too was a sinner. He reminded his disciples that they were in the Holy Mountain, where the Mother of God had called them to work the good, and the saying of Abba Joseph to Abba Lot in the Paterikon: you cannot become a monk unless you become like fire. It is told that a monk asked his blessing to become a fool for Christ, and the elder answered, smiling, whether he was not fool enough already; the monk, ashamed, asked forgiveness.

For fifty years he struggled in the Holy Mountain, glorifying God day and night. Seeing his end near, he blessed everyone and fell asleep in peace on 8 December 1928, mourned and accompanied to the grave by numerous Athonite monks.