Pancratius of Sucevita

Pangratios was an archimandrite and abbot of Sucevița Monastery between 1610 and 1625, after more than twenty years as a hermit on a hill called Pangratios's Hill. He fell asleep in the first decades of the seventeenth century. 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 a disciple of Metropolitan George Movilă, when the latter was abbot at Sucevița (between 1564 and 1579). Desiring the ascetic life, he became a hermit, with his teacher's blessing, on a hill near the monastery, where he made himself a dugout in the middle of the forest. He struggled there more than twenty years in prayer, fasting and vigil, enduring many temptations. His name became known in the villages of the Sucevița valley, and many believers sought him for a blessing and a word of benefit. Tradition credits him with the gift of healing.

In 1610 he was elected abbot of Sucevița and guided the monastery wisely for fifteen years. He increased the number of monks to over fifty, some in the community, the rest in hermitages in the surrounding forests. He taught them all the fear of God, humility and unceasing prayer. He cared for the good running of the monastery, renewed the cells of the monks and hermits and gave much alms to the villagers of the Sucevița valley. He was greatly honoured by believers and had influence among the village people.

He passed to eternal life in the first decades of the seventeenth century.