Misael of Voronet

Misael was a hieroschemamonk and abbot of Voroneț Monastery in the fifteenth century, a close disciple of Saint Daniel the Hermit. 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 Daniel's disciple from the 1450s-1460s, when Daniel was living in his cell at Putna, and he too lived for a time as a hermit in the Putna valley. With Daniel's blessing he then settled with several disciples at Voroneț Monastery. He received priesthood, and around 1470 the community elected him abbot; he was loved for the gentleness and wisdom with which he guided souls.

In 1471, seeing that Daniel was surrounded by too many people and had no stillness at Putna, Misael brought him in secret to Voroneț and built him a stone cell on the Raven's rock, near the monastery, as the saint wished. He assigned him disciples, cared greatly for him and never went against his word.

For more than ten years he led Voroneț and made his community the best-⁠known hermitage in Moldavia. Many monks who wished to live near Daniel settled there under his obedience. Between 1470 and 1480 more than sixty monks struggled in the hermitage, with fifty more hermits in the surrounding forests, all visited by Misael with prayer and Daniel's blessing. After 1480 he took the great schema and withdrew into stillness, then reposed in peace.