Ioan Zlotea

Ioan Zlotea (1862-1928) was a priest in Chișinău, venerated in Bessarabia as a confessor and wonderworker. He died on 10 December 1928. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us are few.

The sources we have, in particular a list of Bessarabian saints proposed for canonization, say that even in life he received many spiritual gifts, among them the gift of wonder-⁠working, and that his burning love for God was joined to sacrificial love for people in suffering and need. His deeds, it is said, were great and countless, but they are not enumerated in the sources available to us.

He passed to the Lord on 10 December 1928 and was buried on 13 December in the cemetery of the Archdiocese vineyard in Chișinău. In 1968, in the time of militant atheism, the cemetery was abolished, and the coffin with his remains was moved to the cemetery at Dobrogea, a district of Chișinău.

For several years, the list says, an Orthodox association, Blessed Matrona, had been collecting testimonies for his canonization. We know of no synodal file.