Jacob of Putna

Holy Hierarch Jacob of Putna was metropolitan of Moldavia (1750-1760), a scholar, builder and protector of the poor, elected bishop of Rădăuți and abbot of Putna Monastery. He fell asleep in the Lord on 15 May 1778 and is commemorated on 15 May.

He was born on 20 January 1719 in a pious family of northern Moldavia, in which almost all entered monastic life: his parents became monastics under the names Adrian and Mariana, his brother became the monk Joel, a sister the nun Pelagia. At twelve he entered Putna Monastery, where he was a disciple of Metropolitan Anthony. At seventeen, in 1736, he was ordained hieromonk. At twenty-⁠five, in 1744, he was elected abbot of Putna, and in 1745 bishop of Rădăuți. As bishop he attended to schools for children and to the translation of service books into Romanian; in 1745 a Liturgikon was printed at Rădăuți. In November 1750 he was raised to the throne of metropolitan of Moldavia.

In ten years as metropolitan (1750-1760) he carried on intense pastoral and social work. He printed many books: in these ten years fifteen books appeared in Moldavia, against ten between 1700 and 1750. In 1755 he printed the Primer, the first schoolbook of Moldavia. At his proposal, in 1759, the first village school in Moldavia was founded, for the children of Putna. He founded the Saint Spyridon hospital in Iași. He asked the princes to give up several heavy taxes: the pogonărit, the vădrărit and above all the văcărit, the tax on large animals, which was impoverishing the country. Prince Constantin Racoviță abolished it in 1756, at the metropolitan's urging and with a letter of anathema received from the Patriarch of Constantinople, but later princes insisted on reinstating it and on lifting the curse. In 1760, so as not to cause a crisis in the country, Jacob left his see, saying: "Behold, I have renounced both the Metropolis and honour and all the things of this world, only let me not take the fire of the oath upon my head and soul." Through this sacrifice the văcărit was not imposed again, and the people kept the memory of him in two lines: "Jacob the Metropolitan, who bound the văcărit."

He retired to Putna and was the second great founder of the monastery, renewing it in the years after 1755: he rebuilt the wall, made a fountain, set up a new iconostasis gilded with gold and endowed it with treasures. He was the spiritual father of the community and of the Putna Hermitage, his close companions being Venerable Silas, Paisios and Nathan. Five days before his death he was tonsured into the great schema by his disciple and confessor, Venerable Nathan. He departed to the Lord on 15 May 1778, with the grief caused by the seizure of Bukovina by the Habsburgs. He was buried in the porch of the monastery, beside his parents in the flesh.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him on 6-7 June 2016, together with Venerable Silas, Paisios and Nathan. His relics were placed in a shrine on 25 September 2016, and the canonization was proclaimed solemnly at Putna on 14 May 2017.