Hermits of the Secu Valley

The Hermits of the Secu valley were eight monastic strugglers of the sixteenth century, named in deeds of gift to Secu Monastery: Moses, Prochorus, Benjamin, Spyridon, Cyriacus, Bessarion, Stephen and Athanasius. They are venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

The documents of the sixteenth century and the start of the next mention their cells outside the walls of Secu: Moses's Cells, Prochorus's, Benjamin's and those of Spyridon and Cyriacus. Each cell was a small community of three or four hermits, in which the eldest was regarded as superior.

The Paterikon writes that all had taken their vows at Neamț Monastery and became hermits in the valley of the Săc stream before the founding of Zosin's Skete, in the second half of the century. They are among the first known hermits of the Secu valley, and their names reached the prince of the land, and several monks became their disciples. Together with others, unnamed, they formed the first hermitage there. When the skete was founded, in 1564, some of them entered the community under Abbot Dosoftei, while the others remained in the forest, at their cells.

They struggled all their lives in stillness, in fasting, prayer and contemplation of divine things. Only on feast days did they gather at Zosin's Skete, hear the service, receive Communion, take rusks for food and return to the wilderness. Toward the end of the sixteenth century they passed to the Lord in peace, leaving many disciples and a hesychast tradition that lasted to our own day.