Abbot Cleopa’s second retreat to the mountains (1952-1954)
Until the spring of 1952, Slatina Monastery flourished and was one of the best organised monasteries in the country. It had more than 80 inhabitants, 60 of them young people. The faithful came on holidays to listen to the holy services and the sermons of Father Cleopa, who moved the hearts of all. Everything was peaceful and orderly. Then, in silence, Father Cleopas said to his disciples:
I am here in Slatina only with my body, but with my soul I am still in Sihăstria, where I was a monk and lived for so many years.
But the devil, who never sleeps, could not resist the good neediness and harmony of the monks of Slatina Monastery. That is why he urged the Securitate forces of the time to make a thorough investigation of the monastery. Arriving at night, the security forces came in large numbers, searched and threatened the abbot and the most prominent members of the monastery. Then they arrested some of them, led by Father Cleopa, Hieromonk Arsenie Papacioc and Brother Constantin Dumitrescu.
They took them to Fălticeni and interrogated them all night. Then Father Cleopa was reprimanded:
You’re sabotaging the national economy, saying that today is George and tomorrow is Basil and it’s the feast, and people put down the plough and stop working!
Father Cleopa replied:
How can I not say it’s a feast when it’s written in the calendar by the Holy Church?
In the end they told the priest to stop his religious propaganda and let him go. Arriving at the monastery at night, Father Cleopa confessed to his confessor and, with his advice, retired in silence, together with Hieromonk Arsenios Papacioc, to the Mountains of Stânișoara and other places unknown to us, until the disturbances in Slatina had subsided. They confessed to each other and had the Holy Sacraments with them, which they shared every two or three weeks; they were not together all the time. For a long time they hid in the woods near the villages of Negrileasa and Ostra, living in an abandoned shepherd house and receiving food once a month from a good Christian called Straton.
At that time there were many wolves in the Stânișoara Mountains, but those who brought them food were not afraid of them, because of the prayers of the two young hermits.
After his return to Sihăstria, Father Cleopas sometimes recounted moments from his wanderings in the mountains:
When I wandered in the woods, my ‘friends’ searched for me, and they were these: old Martin (the bear) and the cunning fox. I got off easier with the “old man”. When I heard him crumbling, I’d throw him a potato and he’d go away; but with the fox it wasn’t like that. She would come to the village door at night, and if I happened to leave some food outside she would be delighted. Once I forgot the pot I was cooking in. There was something else in it. The fox came shamelessly and started to eat. I saw her through the window and went outside. When it saw me, it ran away, but the handle of the pot fell on its head. Now there was no food for me, I was sorry about the pot because I had nothing to cook with. I ran after her and shouted: “Leave the pot!” But she was still cunning. She went over to a branch, grabbed the pot, stuck her head out and ran away. I was glad to have the pot!
(Archim. Ioanichie Bălan – Life of Father Cleopa Ilie)