Joseph of Bisericani Monastery

Venerable Joseph of Bisericani Monastery was the first known hermit on Mount Bisericani and the founder of the monastery of the same name in Moldavia, in the late fifteenth century.

He was born in a village in Neamț county and, being inclined to the monastic life from childhood, entered Bistrița Monastery. There he was tonsured and learned the spiritual life from the older fathers, as well as fasting and unceasing prayer. Seeing that he did not have enough quiet at Bistrița, he took the abbot's blessing and went to worship at the Lord's tomb in Jerusalem. He then withdrew into the wilderness of the Jordan Valley, where within a few years he became a famous hermit. He lived in a cave, alone at first, then with a few disciples, and endured many temptations from the devil. Leading a life of high spiritual experience, he gathered seventeen monks around him and founded the first Romanian spiritual community in the Holy Land.

When Arabs invaded the Holy Places and caused great turmoil, Venerable Joseph took his disciples and returned to Moldavia, to Bistrița Monastery. So his hermitage moved from the Jordan Valley to Moldavia, onto Mount Bisericani. When his disciples increased, he built a small church dedicated to the Annunciation and cells around it. For the monastic life there he established the rule of the sleepless, after the model of the Stoudion Monastery in Constantinople, with unceasing prayer in church and in the cells, fasting, prostrations, the singing of psalms, obedience and love.

When the Turks came and set fire to their church, the monks decided to go to the Holy Mountain, Athos. On the way, however, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared to them in an oak tree and asked: "Where are you going?" Amazed, they answered: "We are going to your garden." The Mother of God said to them: "Return, for my garden is here." In memory of this miracle they placed an icon of the Mother of God there. Later the hermitage of Venerable Joseph was called Bisericani Skete, that is, "of the devout", because the monks prayed there with tears and many were cured of diseases through the prayers and blessing of Venerable Joseph.

He is commemorated on 1 October.