Isaac the Hermit of Sucevita

Isaac was a hieroschemamonk at Sucevița, a hermit for more than thirty years on Furcoi Hill and founder, in 1760, of a hermit skete. He fell asleep after 1780. 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.

He first struggled in the community of Sucevița Monastery, under the abbots Iorest (1725) and Teofan (1732). Wishing to follow the hermits, he withdrew to the crest of a high hill nearby, called Furcoi Hill, and lived as a hermit there for more than thirty years. At first he lived alone in the forest, with many labours and temptations. The Paterikon says that through the gift of the Spirit he received power to drive unclean spirits out of people, so that his name was known everywhere, and the sick climbed to his cell and were healed.

In 1760 he gathered a few disciples, raised a small wooden church dedicated to the Transfiguration and founded a hermit skete on the hill. The hermitage lasted more than twenty years, as a place of stillness for the monks of Sucevița and of spiritual consolation for believers around. Isaac became a very skilled confessor, healer and seer, known throughout northern Moldavia, whose life shone on the mountain like a lamp.

In 1780 he came down to Sucevița Monastery and after a short time gave up his soul into the Lord's hands. His hermitage lasted until 1785, then fell into ruin, like all the sketes under Austrian occupation.