John of Râșca and Secu

Holy Hierarch John of Râșca and Secu was a bishop in Moldavia at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Metropolitan Dosoftei, in his book “The Lives of the Saints”, called him “the holy and wonderful archbishop” and was the first to make him known and honour him as a saint.

He came from the region of Suceava, son of parents named George and Anastasia. About 1560 he entered the community of Râșca Monastery, as a spiritual son of Bishop Macarie of Roman, who was his abbot and confessor. From him he learned letters, and from the hermits of the mountains the work of the prayer of the heart and the guarding of the mind. He became a priest, abbot and great spiritual father at Râșca, where he gathered many monks. He visited the hermits of the Râșca mountains, brought them the Holy Mysteries and stayed in their cells during the fasts. It is said that he had the gift of foresight and of working miracles, and villagers came to him to confess and ask for his prayers.

In 1574, when pagan raiders plundered villages and monasteries in central Moldavia, thousands of people sheltered in the monastery courtyard. The abbot fed and comforted them all. From 1598 to 1605 he was bishop of Huși, then from 1605 to 1608 bishop of Rădăuți. Elected metropolitan of Moldavia, he renounced the throne, withdrew to his monastery and soon departed to the Lord. His life, hidden in Christ, is largely unknown to us. The monasteries of Râșca and Secu keep his memory. He is commemorated on 30 August (new style).