Joseph of Văratec

Venerable Joseph of Văratec, also called Joseph the Hermit († 1828), was a hermit and skilled teacher of the Jesus Prayer, a renowned priest and confessor, a true father to monks and lay people alike. He was the first spiritual father of the monastic community at Văratec and one of the founders of the monastery.

He came from the Neamț region. From youth he embraced the monastic life, first in the community of Neamț Monastery, where, for his humility and obedience, the abbot tonsured him a monk and ordained him a hieromonk. Later he withdrew into the old forests near Sihla Skete, with two disciples from Neamț, Gherontie and Gherman. They lived in three cells of wood and earth beside a small chapel, eating forest fruit and vegetables grown around the cells. The place is still called “Joseph's Cells”. Hermits from the Sihla mountains and the Agapia forests, and monks and abbots from Sihăstria, Sihla, Pocrov and Neamț, came to him for a helpful word and for confession.

At the request of Abbot Paisius, in 1780 he became confessor to a small hermitage of nuns at Pârâul Carpenului (Pipirig), which he later moved to Durău Skete, near Mount Ceahlău. In 1785 he withdrew into the forests of Văratec and helped to found the monastery together with the schemanuns Olimpiada and Nazaria. He guided a community of more than two hundred nuns for over thirty years, working alongside the labourers who raised the buildings. He departed to the Lord in 1828 and was buried in the great church he had built. It was said of him that he had the gift of working miracles and driving out unclean spirits.

He is commemorated on 16 August (new style).