Sabbas Popescu of Stanisoara

Sava Popescu, born in 1830 at Bucșenești, in Argeș, was a hieroschemamonk and confessor of Stânișoara Monastery, known for silence, stillness and work of the mind. He fell asleep in 1904. 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 eldest son of the priest Nicolae Popescu of Loviștea. His father sent him to the Seminary at Râmnicu Vâlcea, wishing to make him a priest, but the young Ștefan was called to monastic life and, after two years, left for Stânișoara, the best-⁠known hermitage in Wallachia in the nineteenth century, a secluded place, without access road, with a choice rule, where no woman entered. He entered there around 1850 and, after three years of obedience, was tonsured with the name Sava, then ordained deacon and priest. Day and night he stayed in church, served with devotion, sang beautifully, spoke little with people and always with God. In his cell he received no one; there he prayed unceasingly, shed secret tears, made many prostrations and vigils and partook of the joy of the Spirit.

Hearing of his life, his father, the priest Nicolae, also became a monk, with the name Nifon, and his youngest son, Atanasie, left the seminary and became a monk there too. They lived together more than thirty years. At the request of Saint Callinicus, in 1863 Sava went to help organize Frăsinei Monastery, where for four years he was confessor and gathered up to twenty disciples, established common life and services after the Athonite typikon. Then he was abbot four years at Turnu, after which he returned to the stillness of Stânișoara. In 1890 his father, Nifon, died, at ninety, and in 1895 Sava was named abbot of the monastery, but, loving stillness, he soon gave it up. The community kept him as confessor, and laity sought him for counsel.

He spent his last years in prayer, cared for by his brother Atanasie. Feeling his end near, he received the Holy Mysteries, asked the abbot's forgiveness and asked to be buried beside their father. He told Atanasie to light the candle and go to his cell to pray for him. Returning after a little, Atanasie found him fallen asleep in the Lord, with the candle beside him, and buried him beside the church altar, next to Nifon.