Procopius (Picu) Patrut

Procopius (Picu) Pătruț, born in 1818 at Săliștea Sibiului, was a monk, missionary, poet, and self-⁠taught calligrapher and miniaturist. He died in September 1872. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; in 1948 he was proposed for canonization as a national saint.

His parents, devout shepherds, raised him in the fear of God. He learned reading and writing at the village school and church chanting from the priest of the great church, where from the age of eleven he served as assistant sacristan. Drawn to religious life and to the examples of venerable monks and martyrs, he fed on the holy books found in the churches and houses of the village. His first manuscript dates from 1837. Through the shepherds who came down with their flocks he gathered the most important church and moral writings of the time and became a remarkable self-⁠taught scholar.

He wrote in verse, to be sung, the lives of saints and martyrs and the meaning of the Church's feasts, which he calligraphed and illustrated himself in manuscripts. In 1849 the young Oprea became a monk at Cheia Skete in Vâlcea, with the name Procopius. He then returned to his home village, where he led an exemplary spiritual life as sacristan and missionary among his people, proclaiming the faith and Christian morality by word, by song and by the miniatures with which he adorned his writings. He spent evenings among the villagers who came to listen to him and to learn the chants of the choir.

He left more than forty manuscript volumes, with poetry, drama, hymns and chants, calligraphy and church copies, accompanied by almost three thousand coloured miniatures; part of his work still awaits publication. After forty-⁠three years of serving the Church and enlightening his people, he died in September 1872. His grave lies in the cemetery of the great church of Săliștea Sibiului, beside that of his brother Nicolae.