Zosimas of Secu

Zosimas, in the world Zosin, was a hieroschemamonk and the founder of the first hermitage in the Secu valley, in the second half of the sixteenth century. 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.

In youth he had been a vistiernicel, a minor official, at the court of the prince of Moldavia. Hearing of the life of some choice hermits in the valley of the Secu stream, near Neamț, among them Prohor, Veniamin, Chiriac, Visarion, Ștefan, Spiridon and Atanasie, he was moved to enter monastic life as well. He benefited much from their holiness and, seeing that they had no church nearby, sold all his wealth and founded the first skete in the Secu valley, called Zosimas's Skete, dedicated to the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. There he received the schema, under the name Zosimas. Later he was ordained and became the first abbot of the hermitage.

His struggle and that of his disciples became known to Prince Alexander Lăpușneanu, who endowed the skete with gifts and boundary deeds between 1555 and 1568. Zosimas guided the hermitage for more than twenty years and gathered thirty hermits around him, who glorified Christ day and night. Some were learned in spiritual matters, such as the hieroschemamonk Dosoftei, and became known teachers and guides.

In great old age he left Dosoftei as abbot, passed to the Lord in peace and was laid beside the church he had built.