John Jacob the Hozevite

Venerable John Jacob the Hozevite, also called John Jacob the Romanian of Choziba or John Jacob of Neamț, was a monk of the Neamț Monastery and later of the Monastery of Saint George of Choziba in the Holy Land. He was born in 1913 at Horodiștea and reposed on 5 August 1960 in the Choziba wilderness. He is venerated as a saint in the Romanian Orthodox Church and in the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, and his commemoration is on 5 August.

His baptismal name was Elijah Jacob. He was the son of Maxim and Catherine, as recorded in the registers of the church of Păltiniș at his baptism, and he was an only child. He was left an orphan of both parents while still small and was raised by his grandmother. He attended his first years of school in his native village, then the gymnasium at Lipcani in the Hotin district, and the lyceum at Cozmeni near Cernăuți.

On 8 April 1936 Archimandrite Valerius Moglan, the new abbot of Neamț Monastery and later vicar bishop at Iași, tonsured him a monk and gave him, according to monastic custom, the name John. His sponsor and spiritual father was Hieromonk Joachim Spătarul, the superior of the Pocrov skete, one of the well-⁠known Moldavian monks of exemplary life.

In November 1936 the young monk set out for the Holy Land with two other monks. He spent two years in the wilderness, in a cave in the desert of the Jordan, then eight years at the Lavra of Saint Sabbas in the Kidron Valley. He had good medical knowledge and cared for the sick monks, and he was also librarian and guide.

In 1947 he was ordained priest at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and appointed superior of the Romanian skete dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in the Jordan Valley, which he led until 1952.

In November 1952 Venerable John Jacob, with his disciple Ioanichie Pîrîială, joined the community of the Monastery of Saint George of Choziba in the Choziba wilderness. The following summer he withdrew into a cave called the Cell of Saint Anne, which belonged to the monastery. There he spent his last years, leading a very austere life. He ate only rusks or bread and water, brought to him by Brother Constantine, the baker of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Saint John Jacob the Hozevite passed to the Lord on 5 August 1960, at the age of forty-⁠seven. He was buried by Amphilochius, the abbot of the Monastery of Saint George, in the cave that had sheltered him in the last years of his life.