Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, Nathan, and Arsenius

In his rich work in the vineyard of Christ, Saint Jacob of Putna was not alone; he worked together with other monks from Putna. Among these, four of them are honored as saints following the discovery of their relics: Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan, who lived at the Putna Hermitage, and Arsenius, whose relics were found in the Putna Monastery.

Venerable Father Silas

Venerable Father Silas was born about 1697, his parents being Ion and Ioana. He entered the monastery in his childhood, at the Orășeni Skete from Botoșani. After the spiritual father of this skete died, about 1710–1715, our Venerable Father Silas came to the Putna Hermitage (today’s Sihăstria Putnei Monastery). There he was tonsured a monk by the spiritual father of the Putna Monastery, Teodosius. After the repose in the Lord of the latter, a new hegumen, Dosoftei, was elected, who ordained him a deacon, then a priest, and later tonsured him into the Great Schema. In October 1731, Metropolitan Anthony of Moldavia gave his blessing for Hieromonk Silas to become the helper of old Hegumen Dosoftei from the Putna Hermitage.

Venerable Father Silas had the gift of preaching, his word entering easily into the hearts of men and cultivating there the love of God and of their neighbor. As another John Chrysostom, Venerable father Silas was a teacher of charity, instructing the rich to progress spiritually by giving away as charity their earthly goods. Hegumen Dosoftei sent him to the boyars of Moldavia to ask for things necessary for religious services, and later, Metropolitan Jacob would send him to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Putna Monastery. Along with this valuable aid, Venerable Father Silas helped his monastery in various ways and is considered one of its new founders, which he truly was.

In 1753, after the repose in the Lord of Hegumen Dosoftei, Metropolitan Jacob appointed Venerable Father Silas as hegumen of the Hermitage. He continued to look after the spiritual life of the monks, as well as their material survival, with a great deal of zeal.

In 1775, following the occupation of northern Moldavia by the Austro‑Hungarian Empire, the Monastery and its Hermitage lost their connection with Moldavia, including their material support, because they were situated beyond the new border. Times of great material struggles and spiritual pressure began for the monastic life and the Church in this region. Only three monasteries remained open, the rest of them, together with all their sketes, being shut down – Putna Hermitage included.

On April 23, 1783, Venerable Father Silas reposed in the Lord after a lifetime of striving to serve Him in everything, and after the pain caused by the spiritual oppression of the monastic life which he had endured in the last years of his life.

A reliquary with fragments of Silas, Paisius, Nathan, and Arsenius’ relics. — A reliquary with fragments of Silas, Paisius, Nathan, and Arsenius’ relics is kept in the “Holy Apostles Peter and Paul” Chapel of the Putna Monastery, founded by Holy Hierarch Jacob of Putna.

Venerable Father Paisius

We know very little about the life of Venerable Father Paisius before he came to the Putna Hermitage. From one note about him dated May 30, 1765, when he was already a monk of the Hermitage, we find that he had been abbot of the Monastery of Saint Elias during the reign of Constantin Cehan Racoviță (1749–1753; 1756–1757) and that he had been transferred from the Monastery of Saint Elias to Râșca Monastery, moving from there to the Putna Hermitage.

According to tradition, he was a column of fire, sustaining everyone around him as a real teacher. He received from Christ, the Good Shepherd, the gift of clairvoyance because of which, as well as because of his virtuous life, he became known and venerated by everyone as a real shepherd.

On December 16, 1784, Venerable Father Paisius reposed in peace into the Lord.

Troparion of the Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan from the Putna Hermitage

You have shown yourselves confessors of true faith and defenders of the Romanian people, O, Holy Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan. You received heavenly gifts laboring through fasting, vigil, and prayer. Pray to Christ God to save our souls.

Icon of the Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan.

Icon of the Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, Nathan, and Arsenius painted by the Putna Hermitage Monastery Fathers in 2016.

Venerable Father Nathan

Venerable Father Nathan was born in the Pașcani region and was for a long time a monk at Putna, being the ecclesiarch of the monastery and having the name of Nathaniel. After a while, he withdrew to the hermitage of the monastery, longing for more solitude, and was tonsured into the Great Schema with the name of Nathan.

In the spring of 1781, on March 10, our Venerable Father Silas, knowing that his passing from this life was close, decided “together with the honorable and venerable brothers” to leave as his successor, as “starets and father for his brothers and protector of this holy, godly and peaceful place of prayer,” “Father Nathan, the confessor.”

Venerable Father Nathan was a well‑known confessor, being the spiritual father of Metropolitan Jacob. His fellow strugglers from his monastery revered him as one who was the keeper and guardian of the tradition received from our Fathers.

He was also endowed by God with the gift of calligraphy, striving with much zeal to write diptychs and to copy service books and books of spiritual edification. In 1754, his calligraphic writing was put on the Diptych of the founders of the Moldavian Metropolis, a list compiled by Saint Jacob of Putna. Also in 1754, he wrote a Small Compline book translated by Archimandrite Bartholomew Mazereanu. In 1756 he wrote the Diptych of Putna Monastery, at the initiative of Saint Jacob. In 1758 and 1759, at the request of Hegumen Dionisie Hudici of the Doljești Skete, he wrote two Diptychs for this skete. In 1760 he translated and copied the Everyday Canon of the Soul towards the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ our God. In 1762, he wrote the Diptych of the “Saint Demetrius” Church in Suceava. In 1768 he wrote the Diptych of the Putna Hermitage. In 1770 he translated and wrote the Rules of Monastic Life. At the beginning of some of his Diptychs, he made up some verses which were then also copied in other places, with the note “Verses of Father Nathan, hieroschemamonk from the hermitage of Putna Monastery.”

His Eminence Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, honored the relics of Saints Silas, Paisius, and Nathan.

After the Austrian occupation, our Venerable Father Nathan strived to maintain the life of the Hermitage in difficult times; he sent letters in 1782 and 1783 to ask for material support. Even so, the struggle for material survival remained constant in their lives, as well as their humility and peace.

Our Venerable Father Nathan peacefully reposed in the Lord on December 26, 1784.

The discovery of the relics of Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan was anticipated by the blessed discovery that among the ruins of the church from Sihăstria Putnei were buried monks who had a holy life. Thus, in the first week of Great Lent in 1990, a monk of the monastery, Nathaniel, withdrew to a cottage next to the ruins of the hermitage in search of solitude. One night, he saw a light “not so strong as to blind you, not so weak as it would not be seen, but as strong as the eye needs to realize that it was a godly light.” The light shone on the graves of the monks, then went around the ruins of the church, and continued north.

On April 24, 1990, the fathers from Putna Monastery started to rebuild Sihăstria Putnei after a closure of more than 200 years. It was on this day that the holy relics of Venerable Fathers Silas, Paisius, and Nathan were found.

First of all was the funeral stone of the Venerable Father Silas on the right side of the skete church, bearing the inscription: “Here are the remains of Hieroschemamonk Silas, who reposed in the Lord in 1783, April 23,” and at only one palm’s depth under the earth his bones were found, yellowish and pleasant to see. Then a funeral stone was discovered next to the exterior of the church nave, on the southern side, bearing the following inscription: “Here are the remains of the servant of God Paisius Hieroschemamonk, reposed in the Lord in the year of 17….” The relics of Venerable Father Paisius were found under the funeral stone. Digging under his relics, the relics of our Venerable Father Nathan were also found, without being covered by any funeral stone.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, in the meeting held on June 6-7, 2016, decided to canonize Metropolitan Jacob of Moldavia, with his feast day on May 15, and his collaborators, Venerable Father Silas, Paisius, and Nathan, with their feast day on May 16.

Venerable Father Arsenius

In 1999, during maintenance works, a special fragrance led to the discovery of the skull of a monk who had been buried in the precinct.

Because the skull had a pleasant yellowish color and its presence spread an atmosphere of deep peace, he was taken into the cell of the father whose obedience was to hear the confessions of the laypeople who came to the monastery for confession or in search of advice. One day, a possessed person entered the cell of the father to have some prayers of absolution read. Once the prayers began, that person started to scream, “You are burning me, Arsenius, with your humility, you are burning me.”

The holy relics may belong to the Schemamonk Arsenius from the Hermitage (Sihăstria Putnei), previously mentioned as the author of a manuscript dated March 1733.

We honor our Venerable Father Arsenius and pray him to give us also zeal for the humility he acquired during his life and the fervor which characterized his accomplishment of the words of Christ. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29).

His Eminence Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, honored the relics of Saints Silas, Paisius, and Nathan during the solemn proclamation of the canonization of the Putna Saints held at Putna Monastery on May 14, 2017.

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