Vichentie Malau

Vichentie Mălău, born in 1887 at Ghidion, in the commune of Stănița in Neamț, was a protosyncellus, confessor at Secu and Agapia, one of the best-⁠known confessors of Moldavia. He died in the summer of 1945 at Vasiova Monastery in Banat; since 1953 his bones have lain in the crypt of Secu Monastery. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

In 1894, when he was seven, his parents entered monastic life with their three children: the father and son Vasile at Secu Monastery, the mother with two daughters at Văratec. In 1895 the father and son went to the Holy Mountain, where they spent eleven years in harsh struggle, beside the best Athonite monks. They returned to Secu in 1906. In 1912 both took the monastic vows: the father received the name Dometian, the son Vichentie, the mother became a nun with the name Migalușa and the eldest sister with the name Epraxia.

In 1915 he was ordained priest and named sacristan and confessor at Secu; between 1916 and 1918 he was a medical chaplain in hospitals for the wounded. Between 1927 and 1928 he was abbot at Secu. Between 1928 and 1940 he served as priest at Agapia, where he became the most sought-⁠after confessor in Moldavia. In 1940 he was transferred as missionary priest to Vasiova Monastery in Banat, where he continued the same apostolic work until his death, in the summer of 1945, mourned by many.

His disciples tell that his confessor on Athos told him that he is saved by praying unceasingly with tears the Jesus Prayer, eating only once a day, keeping vigil, making prostrations and doing nothing without a blessing. The same confessor foretold that he would not stay long on Athos and that, returned to the country, he would become a great guide of souls. Father Eftimie Tănase told that, gravely wounded at the front in 1917, he confessed to the hieromonk Vichentie Mălău in hospital and was assured that he would recover and come to Secu. One of his choicest disciples was Antim Găină. Vichentie also left three letters to his spiritual daughters at Agapia, written from Banat in 1945.