At every historical time, a monastery lives mainly through the spiritual life of its monks. Therefore, in their continuous presence of over 550 years at Putna, God has chosen in every generation spiritual fathers who, through their ascetic striving, became a model of life in Christ for the rest of their monastic community.

Bishop Isaiah Baloșescu

Born in the city of Cândești in 1765, he was very young when he joined the Putna monastic community as a novice, with Archimandrite Bartholomew Mazereanu as his “elder”. was tonsured into the monastic schema and ordained hierodeacon in 1778, when he was only 13. “The obediences of his childhood” at Putna were: ecclesiarch, “scribe”, and teacher for the children. In 1783, Isaiah Baloșescu was sent to Cernăuți (Chernivtsi) as secretary of the Consistory. In 1792, he was appointed hegumen of Dragomirma, and in 1805 was transferred to Putna with the same obedience of hegumen.

In 1823, Archimandrite Isaiah was chosen Bishop of Cernăuți. Shortly after his nomination, he managed to open a four-year Theological Institute and a Clerical Seminary. The bishop also tried – however, without success – to re‑establish a Romanian primary school for his faithful. He reposed in the Lord on September 14, 1834, and was buried next to the altar of the church of Putna Monastery.

Archimandrite Theophilus Patraș

The future hegumen of the Putna Monastery was born on February 22, 1839, in Tereblecea. His parents, Dimitrie and Maria, baptized him Theodore.

After graduating in Theology, he was a priest for 30 years (1866–1896), marrying the daughter of the parish priest of Siret and having three children. After his wife’s death, he chose monastic life, becoming, for two years, hegumen of Sucevița (1899–1901), and then dedicating his last 16 years of life to the Putna Monastery, as hegumen (1901–1917).

Under his rule, the Putna monastic community generously supported churches, parishes, companies, and organizations from Bukovina with money, goods, or church objects, thus strengthening the spiritual life of Romanians. Although offering material support is not the primary mission of a monastery, Putna assumed this role at a time when much was expected from historical monasteries, as they were among the few Romanian establishments left under the new Austrian rule, within a foreign state. Several parish churches received help (Mihova, Vașcăuți, Gălănești, Ivancăuți, Pătrăuțiul de Sus, etc.) consisting of money, service books, complete priestly vestments, sacred vessels, icons, crosses, and other liturgical objects.

Archimandrite Theophilus Patraș built, together with Mayor D. Pauliuc, the school from Frătăuții Vechi and, together with Mayor V. Marcu, the boarding school from the “Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki” College in Rădăuți. He was hegumen in 1904, when 400 years were celebrated from the Dormition of Stephen the Great and Holy, a celebration with a great impact in the Romanian Kingdom.

He passed away in August 1917 and was buried in his family vault in the Frătăuți cemetery.

Archimandrite Gregory Volcinschi

The 1919–1931 hegumen of the Putna Monastery was born on June 15, 1853, in Călinești‑Cuparenco, Suceava county, and was baptized George. After he finished his studies, he received a PhD in Philosophy and Theology from the Universities of Amsterdam and London. Ordained priest in 1880 and receiving the cross of widowhood in 1917, he took the monastic vows in 1919 at Sucevița Monastery and became hegumen of the Putna Monastery.

Leading the monastery in a very special historic moment, during the years that followed the Great Union of 1918, he pursued with all his heart the calling received from God and greatly contributed to the spiritual edification of Romanians by enthusiastically receiving the pilgrims who came to the grave of Saint Stephen the Great. The guest registers from that period are full of appreciations and thanksgivings for the love he showed to the pilgrims who came in search of the living water of faith and love of the nation.

Archimandrite Gregory Volcinschi had the merit of organizing the first museum of Putna. He reposed on July 13, 1931, and was buried in the monastery cemetery. He is remembered as a spirited preacher of love for holiness and love for the nation.

Metropolitan Nectarius Cotlarciuc

The future metropolitan was born on February 19, 1875, in Stulpicani, Câmpulung, and received at baptism the name of Nicholas. His father, Teodor, was a church singer; his mother, Ioana, became a nun in her old age, when she received the name Juvenalia.

After graduating from the “Stephen the Great” College in Suceava, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology and Philosophy in Cernăuți. Getting his PhD in History, Romanian Philology and Philosophy, he proceeded to specific courses at the Universities of Vienna, Bonn, Würzburg, and München. In 1901, he got married and afterwards had five children. After two of them, as well as his wife, died in 1918, he dedicated himself completely to the Church, becoming a professor and dean at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Cernăuți and a member of the Parliament of Greater Romania.

In 1923, he entered monastic life at Putna Monastery, receiving the name of Nectarius. In the same year, he was elected Bishop of Moncastro and Ismail. One year later, he became Metropolitan of Bukovina. His times required persistent zeal, firmness, and spiritual balance, qualities that he fully displayed. He rebuilt and founded dozens of churches, parish houses, church buildings, as well as social, educational, and charity institutions. He published books on historical theology, liturgical theology, canon law, history of the church, literature, and the history of literature. Nationally, he fought for the union of all Romanians in a single state, which could be accomplished only through the support of faith.

Affected by the opposition his work encountered, he reposed into the Lord on July 4, 1935 and was buried in the Metropolitan Crypt of the Cernăuți cemetery.

Among the fathers from the first half of the 20th century, there are some, such as Hieromonk Joachim Tracicaru, and Archimandrites Athanasius Prelipceanu and Paisius Prelipceanu, who remained in the memory of those who knew them as important spiritual fathers.

Schemamonk Mark Dăncilă

Witness of many changes during the 20th century, Schemamonk Mark Dăncilă (1900–1986) was one of those fathers whose silence accomplished more than his words. The fathers who knew him say that he was very silent, spending most of his time in the church, did not quarrel with anyone, always prayed, and read spiritual books. His ascetical strivings were hidden, and all the fathers of the community loved him and respected him. In the 30 years spent in the Putna Monastery, Father Mark rarely stepped out of its gates. He wrote that the suffering received with faith, humility, and prayer is the best teacher that could raise the soul from the darkness of passions and toward the Light. Father Mark reposed in the Lord while he was praying in his cell. The fathers found him on his knees, with his head upon the Psalter.

Hieromonk Damascene Schipor

Another father who knew godly peace was Hieromonk Damascene Schipor (1908–1988). He entered the monastery in 1936 and was ordained hieromonk in 1948. He was a humble, simple, and zealous monk. He was never seen upset, no one could ever hear bad words from his mouth, and nobody could quarrel with him. He loved the church deeply. He was never absent from the religious services, being the first to come and the last to leave.

During the Second World War, enlightened by God, he managed to save the patrimonial goods threatened to be sent abroad or destroyed in the confrontation between the German and Russian Armies. During Communism, because he continued to hear confessions from the faithful, although he had been forbidden, he was sent to jail for a few years. Father Damascene’s kindness poured out even unto the birds of the sky: every day, he fed them with crumbs. At his death, hundreds of them came into the church, sang during the whole burial service, and then followed his coffin until it was covered by earth.

Bishop Gerasim Cucoșel

Surnamed the “Grandpa of Bukovina”, he was a man of order and discipline, which were springing directly from his soul, excelling in decorum, meekness, and godliness. He had joined monastic life, coming from a small village near Fălticeni, named Ciumulești, and loved the rules of the Church and the cenobitic way of life. Although he had grown up in the climate of spiritual elevation offered by the Neamț and Putna monasteries, was educated under the enlightened guidance of professors such as St. Dumitru Stăniloae, and was honed as a hierarch by following a scholar such as Patriarch Justin, he treasured the gift of simplicity and a peasant’s sense of decency for all his life. In time, to his simplicity were added depth, decorum, and humility, and he wove his love for God into love for his neighbor. Suffering and difficulties were present throughout his life, but he bore his cross with dignity, joy, and a strong faith in God. Hence, he got the strength to speak his thoughts straightforwardly, clearly, and boldly for as long as he was hegumen of Putna (1962–1977) and Auxiliary Bishop of Arad, Buzău, and Suceava. Among the Romanian Orthodox hierarchs, His Grace Gerasim remains a unique figure, a crusader of simplicity, a name that will remain on top of the Synaxarion of decorum from all times. Always ready to give good advice and never to impose rules, he managed to heal people with a smile.

Being a man of God, he carried out his obedience as bishop like the hierarchs of former times: by being a real shepherd, praying for his flock and teaching in season and out of season, convinced that nothing has life in itself without God. Humility was his adornment, catching others’ attention through a primary apostolic attitude.

Sometimes, he complained that he missed the solitude he longed for: “I have this obedience of being a hierarch, and I cannot hide somewhere to cry over my sins. Oh, God, come help me! Oh, God, increase my zeal so that I can reach the peace of soul and become a peacemaker. Give me the strength to pray and to understand the mysteries and the calling you have addressed me since childhood! Give me peace of soul, so that I can love everyone and, most of all, my adversaries!”

Those who knew him remember him as a man of prayer, shining with goodness, meekness, tolerance, and modesty, noble and ready for sacrifice, a unique model, a hierarch with a heart as big as the bells of Putna.

He could resume everything in three Romanian words: spiritually, in the words of a Romanian traditional children’s prayer – “Lord, Lord”; socially, in the word “mother”; and literature-wise, in the name of “Eminescu”, Romania’s national poet; these words represented the supreme essences for him.

Aware of his priestly calling, His Grace used to say that “the priest is like a wire through which electricity passes and turns into light even if that wire has rust on it. Only when the wire is broken can electricity not be turned into light anymore.”

Having been asked one day if he missed something, the “Grandpa” from Bogdana Monastery answered: “I am longing for God. Nothing else pleases me more than the moments of intense spiritual life.” He considered that no infirmity is worse than not being able to love.

Archimandrite Hyacinth Unciuleac

A father whose spiritual elevation marked all who met him was Archimandrite Hyacinth Unciuleac (1924–1998). Surnamed “The Confessor of Bukovina”, he was a disciple of Saints Cleopas (Ilie) and Paisius (Olaru) of Sihăstria, and of another great father, Daniel Sandu Tudor. Father Hyacinth’s particular meekness and humility led many souls to Christ.

As a guide, he managed to depict like no other the holiness and sacrifice for the country shown by Saint Stephen the Great, so his words changed many lives. He used to consider that humility represents the foundation of the spiritual life. His great patience with everyone was a visible sign of his humility.

Father Hyacinth had a blessed end. On June 23, 1998, after he heard a morning confession made by a close disciple, he remained in his confession chair, praying. This is how his soul departed to the Lord.

After honoring the meek starets at his grave, His Eminence Callinicus Argatu, Archbishop of Argeș and Muscel, noted as a testimony over the centuries: “Towards the sunset, the cemetery of the voivodal Putna hides under its clod, in the hope of Resurrection, the body of the meek abbot, Archimandrite Hyacinth! The diligent father, the pious wise man, and, most of all, the sweet starets reposed in the Lord in his confession chair, with his head bowed toward his loving heart and with his right hand stretched to give more absolutions.”

When asked which was the spiritual, cultural, and patriotic role of the Putna Monastery over the centuries for Moldova and all our country, Father Hyacinth answered: “It is delicate and dangerous to make such a classification of its role. We could rather say that these are aspects of the same singular role of the Putna Monastery: the spiritual continuity of love for God and for people, and the keeping alive of such awareness throughout the centuries. This awareness finds its peak in the personal way of life of each of the monks who offered themselves to God here, at Putna, through prayer and humility, and in the personality of the great Christian and undefeated protector of Orthodoxy and of Moldavia, Stephen the Great. The role of Putna has been one: to stay over the centuries as a living candle in the northern part of Moldavia, for the glory of God and the enlightenment of our nation; to be a warm hearth for others’ souls, a school of godliness for the monks and the Christians, and a haven for all of us, where to strengthen our bonds with one another.”

Concerning monastic life, Father Hyacinth advised the monks: “Let us pray for one another and all together give praise to God and His saints. Then, let us devoutly fulfill our monastic vows, defend Orthodox faith with a spirit of sacrifice, urge the faithful in and out of season to lead a Christian life, teaching them the mysteries of our faith, charity, temperance, humanity, and respect for our forefathers. If we accomplish that which we have promised, if we support others on their way to salvation, if we love and are humble, we can hope that we have not lived for nothing on this earth and that we will be well received in the next life, into the light of Christ.”

Hieroschemamonk Cesarius Albeață

Hieroschemamonk Cesarius Albeață (1914–1999) was a supplicant for the whole world. Prayer was his very life. In the morning, he did not open his door before he finished reading the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God. This is why the Mother of God called him to her on September 8, on the feast of her birth. As a confessor, he sought to inspire a spirit of prayer in the people who came to see him, even in children.

The father knew the mood, the spiritual rhythm of everyone who came to see him, and tried to correct their various deviations. The expression by which he designated such a person was: “This one is false!” He was rather harsh when he had to root out a passion, and was very upset when somebody did not fulfill their duty carefully and wholeheartedly. In such cases, he used to repeat Holy Prophet Jeremiah’s words: “A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!” (Jeremiah 48:10).

He considered watchfulness to be of the utmost importance for spiritual progress. He would advise against living in our fantasy, in imagination, and favored simple living, which means perceiving reality as it was while living in the presence of God. He also used to say: “Learn to shut up your doors!” especially referring to the door to our thoughts, explaining that evil spirits rejoice and have mastery over people by scattering their thoughts. Even when someone happened to cause damage of any kind, he had the same remark: “Hey, do you not watch over your mind?!”

He was also a man of discipline and very fond of respecting one’s promises. When someone did not keep his word, he used to say: “But where is that word: All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’» (Matthew 5:37)?”

Archbishop Victorin Ursache

Apart from the fathers who used to live at Putna, God also allowed other people with blessed lives to be buried in the cemetery of our monastery. In July 2001, His Eminence Victorin Ursache (1912–2001), Archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Canada, was buried in the Putna Monastery cemetery, according to his wish. His monastery of repentance was Mănăstioara‑Siret from the county of Suceava. By this, the spiritual heritage of our monastery was enriched with one of the most luminous figures of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the 20th century.

When he was tonsured into the monastic schema, he received the name of Victorin at the suggestion of Patriarch Nicodemus, who told the hegumen, “Give him the name of Victorin, because he proved that he has the patience of a martyr, and he will also know how to act like a hierarch.”

He was a man of prayer, obedient and humble. When he was sitting on the bishop’s throne in the Holy Altar, you could have thought that he was asleep. But the two fingers of his right hand were pointing towards his heart, and, when he had to say his part as a bishop during the service, he stood up without anyone telling him, as if an angel was helping him to be as present as possible both in the Divine Liturgy and in the prayer of the heart. Father Theophylactus from Putna used to say: “I haven’t seen yet a man in whom prayer vibrated as it does in His Eminence Father Victorin.”

One of his disciples said about him, “If saints have ever lived on earth, then His Eminence Victorin was one of them.”

Archdeacon Theophylactus Ciobîcă

One of the pillars of the Putna Monastery for almost 63 years was Archdeacon Theophylactus Ciobîcă (1926–2010). As a result of Decree 410 of 1959, the father had to leave the monastery. He found a job and continued his life of monastic striving discreetly and humbly, but zealously. He was a light for the people around him, his former job colleagues calling him “our guardian angel” 50 years later. Of an outstanding kindness, Father Theophylactus was never seen upset and never remembered bad things, but he strove to live in the presence of Christ. He was an icon of the proper order on the outside as well as inside himself. His spiritual legacy was: “Where there is humility, there is everything. Where there is no humility, there is nothing.”

After Father Theophylactus reposed in the Lord, one of the monks from the Putna community wrote: “This is how Father was: a refreshing cloud, a pleasant shade which we did not realize then and maybe not even now entirely, but in whom we rejoiced and we are still rejoicing. A beautiful old man, he was fire in his young age and, in the fullness of age, he enlightened us with the grace he had been found worthy to receive. One felt safe next to him. If you were going through a temptation, the father used to pray and call you to the chanter’s stand. With his ‘How are you, young man?’ he would pull you out of the darkest thoughts, and throw you into the arms of God.”

Monk Seraphim Hasna

He was born on March 5, 1983, as the fifth child out of seven to Dumitru and Elena Hasna from Straja, Suceava county. Father Seraphim received at baptism the name of Vasile. The event that changed his life happened when he was 14 years old and, disobeying his parents, ran away to take a bath in the shallow waters of the Suceava River. There he suffered an accident that kept him bedridden for the rest of his life – a life of suffering in holy patience.

He was regularly brought to the monastery, and the fathers of the monastery visited him at home. On August 29, 2013, on the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, he took the monastic vows, receiving the name of Seraphim.

After 6 months, Father Seraphim seemed to be preparing for his great departure. On the night between January 16 and 17, 2014, he entered a coma until about midnight when, for the love he had for Him, the Lord considered him worthy of a great gift – a dialogue with Him.

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace…,” murmured Father Seraphim to Christ, Whom he alone could see and not the fathers gathered around him. “You, as being the true God, return this to me in truth… I do believe that you will forgive me. But I beseech You, my God, forgive me… for Your great mercy, forgive me!…” That was the state of repentance that someone has in the presence of God. Then God granted him to see his own inner beauty, which was hidden until that moment from his earthly eyes under the image of a paralyzed body, distorted and full of wounds: “With these festive clothes… You see… how beautiful I am…”

“Make me joyful… Forgive us, all of us, all of us… Forgive all of us… Good… Thank you for listening to me… Beautiful… I believe that you will forgive me, my God… Forgive me, my God, forgive me and do not forsake me.”

Sixteen years of suffering had turned him into a blessing and a source of peace for those around him. It is not easy to have to wait for someone else to turn even the page of a book. “I received this illness as a blessing and, in the process, I concluded that I found greater joy while being ill than when I was healthy.” Asked how he managed to overcome despair, he answered: “Often confession made me overcome it. It is difficult to fight against invisible enemies when you do not master your imagination… but I defeated them through the Holy Mystery of Confession and the Holy Communion.”

Archimandrite Gregory Halciuc

Father Gregory Halciuc (1938–2022) was a disciple of Venerable Hieroschemamonk Daniel Sandu Tudor, the hegumen of the Rarău Skete. Under his guidance, he was formed as a monk, God preparing him for a long spiritual labor that required steadfastness, precision, trust in God’s providence, and a deep love for the holy things.

Born in Tulcea county, he embraced monastic life at the age of 17. Yet, he suffered the consequences of Decree 410 of 1959, when he was forced to leave the brotherhood of Father Daniel Sandu Tudor. Nevertheless, Father Gregory continued to live as a monk, even though he had not yet taken the monastic vows. When circumstances became favorable, in 1965, he entered the brotherhood of Putna Monastery, where he was tonsured on April 8, 1974, together with Father Theodore Pavlo, after the Monday Matins of Holy Week, behind closed doors.

A few years later, in 1978, Father Gregory Halciuc was called to become abbot of the “Saint John the New of Suceava” Monastery, an obedience he fulfilled with zeal until September 1, 2020. In recognition of his merits and of the example of monastic life he offered, in 2021, His Eminence Calinic, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuți, awarded him the Order of the “Cross of Bukovina.”

Uprightness, dignity, love of God, and unwavering devotion to Christ guided him throughout his life, making him into a beautiful icon of monastic life, a monk in the true sense of the word: a “beautiful elder.” He was laid to rest in the cemetery of Putna, his monastery of repentance.

Protoschemamonk Jacob Bîrsanu

Father Jacob was born on September 18, 1951, in Mălini, Suceava county, to Nechita and Paraschiva, who named him Vasile at baptism. Following a long-cherished desire, he joined the Sihăstria Monastery on March 24, 1983. Two years later, he was tonsured into monasticism at Putna Monastery by His Grace Gerasim of Putna, receiving the name Bessarion.

For his zeal and spiritual maturity, the future Patriarch Theoctistus of Romania ordained him hierodeacon on March 2, 1986, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași. The next day, Bishop Poemen of Suceava ordained him a hieromonk and appointed him as the spiritual father of the Putna Monastery.

Beginning on November 1, 1987, he served for one year at Moldovița Monastery as priest and spiritual father. Yet his heart longed to live in the Holy Land. Thus, in January 1990, he set out for Mount Athos, from where he journeyed to Jerusalem. At the Khozeva Monastery, he became a disciple of Father Joanikius Pârâială, himself a disciple of Saint John Jacob of Neamț. There, Bessarion was tonsured into the Great Schema, receiving the same name as the Saint he loved and served throughout his life—Saint John Jacob the Khozevite.

On September 9, 2022, as a sign of recognition for his labor in the Lord’s vineyard, His Eminence Caliniccus awarded him the highest distinction of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți, the “Cross of Bukovina”, on which occasion Hieroschemamonk Jacob was also elevated to the rank of Protosyncellus.

Serious and attentive, responsible and self-sacrificing to the point of exhaustion, Father Jacob knew no other way than the path of following Christ. He would often say, “The Church needs people of sacrifice.” And his life became a sacrifice! Again, he would say that a monk should have written in large letters in his cell the words of Christ: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). This was his ascetic struggle: to lower his mind beneath all creation. Simple, yet wise, he knew how to become, like Holy Apostle Paul, “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22).

He loved Saint John Jacob with all his soul; therefore, the churches he founded—at Pojorâta and Mestecăniș—were dedicated to this Saint. In all that he did, he sought to follow him: not only through the ascetic struggle he carried out at Khozeva, at the side of the Saint, but also through his way of being. His patience and spirit of sacrifice, hard to equal today, made him worthy of great grace before God. He always had a simple yet decisive word, bearing the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, for every person who came to him seeking counsel or comfort. Those who were at a crossroads or in hardship came to Father Jacob and left strengthened, with the conviction that God had spoken to them through him.

Together with these fathers whom we have mentioned, there are many others whom only Good God knows better than we do, and by whose prayers the brotherhood hopes to perpetuate the life of the monastery.