Joseph Craciun of Neamt

Iosif Crăciun, born in 1864 at Gârcina, in Neamț, was a protosyncellus, hermit, confessor and known exorcist at Neamț Monastery, called the Hermit of Icoana. He fell asleep in the spring of 1944. 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.

In youth he was married. After his wife's death, in 1911, on the advice of the renowned pilgrim Gheorghe Lazăr, whose disciple he was, he entered the Neamț community. After two years he received the schema and struggled a few years at Vovidenia Skete. Then, with the abbot's blessing, he withdrew into the forests near Icoana Skete, where he lived almost ten years in the wilderness, alone with God, enduring temptations from demons, from the flesh and from people. His greatest struggle was long fasting, joined with vigil and the reading of the Psalter. The Paterikon says that through patience and humility he received the gift of driving evil spirits out of people, so that epileptics and sick people lacking consolation came to his cell, whom he received with love.

His manner of praying for the sick was this: he sent them first to the monastery to confess and be anointed with holy oil, then the sick person returned to the cell in the forest and was put to fasting and prayer three days and three nights, with his relatives and the hermit himself, reading the Psalter day and night. On the third day many were healed; those not healed repeated the struggle. For this and for his counsel he was known throughout central Moldavia, as the Hermit of Icoana.

In 1926 he was called into the community and two years later was ordained deacon and priest. He became the most sought-⁠after confessor and exorcist of Neamț, between 1928 and 1944. Daily peasants and townspeople came to his cell, sick and well, young and old, monks and laity, poor and rich. Though strict with the canon, all wished to confess to him. To receive the sick he had a house given by the monastery, outside the precinct, a true infirmary, where he stood among them day and night, with the cross in his hand and the epitrachelion on his breast. The means of healing were the same for all: much prayer, confession, holy oil, the prayers of Saint Basil, Holy Communion and, without fail, three days of fasting. He also practised the Jesus Prayer and mercy toward the needy. In the spring of 1944 he passed to the heavenly dwellings, remembered to this day by many spiritual children.