Nectarius Banul

Nectarius Banul, born in 1818 at Călinești, near Roman, was an archimandrite, the closest disciple and biographer of Irinarch Roseti and abbot of the skete on Mount Tabor. He died around 1900 at Saint Sabbas Monastery near Bethlehem. 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 the priest Alexander Banul and was orphaned young. In 1834, at fifteen, hearing of the great elder Irinarch Roseti of Horaița, he entered his hermitage as a resident. The elder made him monk and deacon, with the name Nectarius. At that time his sister Mersonia also became a nun, at Giurgeni Monastery in Roman.

In 1843, when Irinarch left for Jerusalem, he took the hierodeacon Nectarius as disciple, for his obedience and gentleness. They lived together almost twenty years, sharing the temptations, trials and joys of the hermit life: first five years at Nazareth, then on Mount Tabor, where they became hermits known throughout Galilee for their life, patience and humility. Nectarius served his father with faith and love, never going against his word. When Irinarch fell asleep, in 1859, he had foretold that Nectarius would remain abbot on Tabor and complete the begun church. Patriarch Cyril of Jerusalem made him priest and archimandrite in 1862, and he finished and consecrated the church that year, on the feast of the Transfiguration. He stayed on Tabor another twenty years, serving the Liturgy and all necessary services, then built cells and the surrounding wall.

In 1892, old and ill, he withdrew to Saint Sabbas Monastery near Bethlehem. In 1898 he wrote, at eighty, the Life of Archimandrite Irinarch Roseti, as Irinarch had foretold, and sent it to the Metropolis in Bucharest for printing. In the preface, with a trembling hand and failing sight, he asks forgiveness for the mistakes in the writing. After forty years of harsh struggle on Tabor, he passed to eternal rest at Saint Sabbas, being buried beside other Romanian monks.