Vichentie Chimitiuc

Vichentie Chimitiuc, baptized Vladimir, born in 1914 at Tașlîc, in the Grigoriopol district, was a hieromonk and priest in his native village, killed together with his mother, Glicheria, on the night of 16 to 17 January 1957. His canonization file, together with his mother's, is with the Orthodox Church of Moldova: in April 2024 the Synod approved the commission's file, and on 17 June 2026 the canonization commission decided unanimously to forward it to the Synod for examination. Until then he is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; his memory is kept on 17 January.

He was born into a peasant family, of Pantelimon and Glicheria Chimitiuc; sources give the date as 15 July or 28 July 1914. After an incident in childhood, at thirteen, he swam across the Dniester, then the border between the USSR and Romania, was caught by border guards, interrogated and tortured, and then reached Chișinău, at the Archiepiscopal Vineyard, in 1927. In 1931 he came to Neamț Monastery, where he did the seminary and learned iconography, then reached Antim, in Bucharest, where on 5 December 1940 he received monastic tonsure, with the name Vichentie.

In the summer of 1944 he returned to Tașlîc. Saint George's Church, built in 1796, had been damaged by bombing; he repaired it, painted the icons and gathered the church's goods. He organized a choir of about twenty people, who gathered at his house, because the church could be opened only on Sundays and feast days. The church was full, with up to five hundred people. In 1953 the authorities wished to close it, on the grounds that the building was damaged; he called a commission from Chișinău, whose expert report denied the damage, and so the church stayed open. Today it is a state-⁠protected monument.

After 1953 pressure on the church grew, with increased taxes and threats. On 10 August 1955 the father was moved to Saint Michael's church in Rusești. He continued to serve at home, at night, in secret, baptisms, weddings and prayers, and urged neighbouring villages to open churches. Those who knew him speak of the gift of healing prayers, which spread word of him on both banks of the Dniester; he took no payment from the poor.

On the night of 16 to 17 January 1957, he and his mother were killed in their house at Tașlîc, with many knife wounds; the expert report showed a contract killing. It is said he had foretold his death, like that of Jesus Christ. He was buried in the village; for many years memorial services have been held at his grave, where twice a month nuns come from the Saints Peter and Paul monastery in Bender. Since 2016 the Commission for the Canonization of Saints of Moldova has been researching his life and death and his mother's.