Patapius and Nicander of Mount Ceahlau

Patapius and Nicander were two hermits of the north-⁠west of Ceahlău, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the schemamonk Patapius, of the vows of Cerebuc Monastery, and the hieroschemamonk Nicander, of the vows of Pionul. They are venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

Having become known in the villages of the Bistrița Valley, they withdrew into the impenetrable forests around Ceahlău, following the hermits who had found stillness there. Patapius made himself a wooden dugout beside a stream and struggled there more than twenty years with a disciple, in long fasting, daily reading of the Psalter, prostrations and night vigil. For the humility of his heart he became an intercessor sought by sufferers, many of whom were reportedly healed through his prayers.

Nicander had his cell in a small clearing above Durău Monastery, where he struggled alone for many years. The Paterikon describes him as a healer of the sick from the villages, who climbed the mountain to his cell. He had them fast completely for up to three days, heard their confessions, read them the prayers of Saint Basil the Great and, by the grace of Christ, they returned home well. He was also confessor to the hermits of Ceahlău and to all who reached his cell; Patapius himself was one of his disciples.

Both passed to eternal life toward the end of the eighteenth century. Their names live in the mountain's place-⁠names: Patapius's Stream, Nicander's Stream and Nicander's Clearing, in popular speech Nicander's Hollow.