Joseph Rusu of Dintr-⁠un Lemn

Iosif Rusu, born in 1883 at Icușești, in Neamț, was a protosyncellus and confessor of Dintr-⁠un Lemn Monastery in Vâlcea, called the father of the poor. He fell asleep at the start of 1966. 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.

He was the son of God-⁠loving parents. In 1908 the young Ioan entered as a brother at Bogdana Monastery in Bacău, and after two years received monastic tonsure. In 1911 he was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Gherasim Safirin of Roman. In 1914 he went to the Holy Mountain, where he struggled eight years with fasting and prayer. Returning to the country, he was for ten years parish priest at Brâncoveni, in Dolj, then between 1933 and 1940 abbot at Calui Monastery, and from 1940 confessor at Dintr-⁠un Lemn.

At Brâncoveni he was so gentle and merciful that all loved him, and the sick came to him and were healed. He loved prayer and mercy above all. For him the church was God Himself: day and night he stayed in church, serving with joy and tears. When he heard the semantron or the bell he would call his spiritual daughter and say that they were going to God. He urged his spiritual children to come to church in great numbers, rich and poor, hungry and full. For twenty-⁠six years he served the Liturgy daily at Dintr-⁠un Lemn, being the only priest and confessor: after the service he read over the sick, heard the community's confessions, counselled, distributed alms to the poor. He served quietly and without haste. At the proskomide he carefully commemorated everyone, saying that he had received the poor man's and the widow's coin and would give account.

The nuns tell that often, on his way to church, the enemy came before him as a black dog and pulled him by the cassock in another direction. He made the sign of the Holy Cross and told it to vanish from before him, that he was going to church, then entered with a radiant face. He also cared for the departed: for forty days he served the Liturgy and memorial for them, then made a meal for all and gave alms to the poor.

After fifty-⁠eight years of struggle and mercy, he fell asleep at the start of 1966 and was accompanied by the nuns and the people of the village of Dezrobiți, buried among the old oaks of the monastery cemetery.