John the Hermit of the Sihastria Valley

John was a hermit of the sixteenth century, regarded as one of the first monks to live as hermits in the Sihăstria valley, in the Neamț Mountains. 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.

The Paterikon supposes that he came from the Neamț Monastery community, like almost all the hermits of those mountains. Loving perfect stillness, he withdrew to the sources of the Săc stream and made a cell in a solitary clearing, which bears his name to this day. The oldest mention of John's Clearing is in a boundary deed from the first half of the sixteenth century, which set the borders of the Neamț and Agapia Veche monasteries.

The labours, prayers and temptations he endured there, the Paterikon writes, God alone knows. Local tradition says he lived many years in the clearing, that he was a great confessor and teacher of stillness and prayer and that he had great love for Christ. His name became known and many monks who loved stillness became his disciples. It is thought that from him the place was called first the Hermit's Valley, then the Hermits' Valley, and from the seventeenth century the Sihăstria Valley.

He reached great old age, gave up his soul into God's hands and was buried by his disciples in that clearing.