Teofil Paraian

Teofil Părăian, born Ioan on 3 March 1929 at Topârcea, in Sibiu, was an archimandrite and confessor of Sâmbăta de Sus Monastery, born blind, known as the monk of joy. He died on 29 October 2009 at Cluj, aged eighty. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He was born into a peasant family and was blind from birth. Between 1935 and 1940 he attended the school for the blind in Cluj, and in 1942-1943 one in Timișoara. He attended lyceum at Timișoara, at an ordinary school, between 1943 and 1948. At that time he met Father Arsenie Boca, from whom he learned the prayer of the heart; wishing to enter monasticism, he was advised first to do university. He attended the Theological Institute in Sibiu between 1948 and 1952.

On 1 April 1953 he entered the community of Brâncoveanu Monastery at Sâmbăta de Sus, and on 15 August 1953 was tonsured a monk, with the name Teofil. He was ordained deacon on 15 August 1960, priest on 13 May 1983 and archimandrite on 8 September 1988. After 1990 he gave hundreds of lectures on religious themes in more than eighty localities in the country and in Western Europe, and people came to him in great numbers for counsel.

His speech was simple, full of humour and joy. He left dozens of books of conversations, sermons and spiritual words, among them Father Teofil Speaks to Us, Lights of Thought, Prosphora for Communions, The Gifts of the Resurrection, Memories of the Confessors I Have Known and The Cardinal Points of Orthodoxy. He said of himself that his ideal had been to multiply good and joy. In November 2002 he received the National Order of Merit. He died at Cluj on 29 October 2009. He is commemorated on 29 October; he has no synodal canonization.