John of Prislop

Venerable John of Prislop was abbot of the Prislop monastery, chosen in 1585 metropolitan of Transylvania, and afterward shut in a cell hewn in the rock. He was born around 1540 and died around 1605. The Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him on 20 June 1992 and commemorates him on 13 September.

He left his parents' house and struggled in the monastic community of Prislop, where in time he became abbot. On 20 March 1585 he was chosen metropolitan of Transylvania. After some years of monastic life he chose seclusion. Half a kilometer from the monastery, on the rocky and steep bank of the river Silvaș, he hewed himself a cell in the rock, known to this day as "the cell or house of the saint". There he spent the rest of his life in vigil and prayer, following the hermits of old. According to the source, he died young, though the years that tradition gives for his life do not fit this.

Local tradition says that, while he was hewing out a small window, two hunters on the other bank of the ravine fired, not knowing at whom they were shooting, and killed him. The Orthodox faithful of the region venerated John already in his lifetime. His devout life became known also in Wallachia, from where several monks came, asked his relatives for the saint's body and carried it to one of the monasteries of the region. This tradition has been known since the second half of the eighteenth century, from the verse chronicle "The Lament of the Holy Monastery of Silvaș in the Diocese of Hațeg, from Prislop", written by the hieromonk Ephraim.

The cell of John of Prislop is a place of pilgrimage.