At Cernica

Immediately after his liberation, Constantine entered the monastery of Cernica, where he was received by the abbot and ordained to various ascetic practices. He was 46 years old.

“When I was released, in 1956, through Father Benedict Ghiuș, I was given a note to the abbot of Cernica. The abbot told me to “go to the stable.”

At the Cernica monastery I went to do obedience at the cattle, the pigs, the sheep, the greenhouse, and in the spring they gave me the vineyard and the garden to attend to. And because there was a great drought, I saw how the onions and tomatoes had dried up and turned yellow, falling to the ground. And I, who was just digging in the vineyard, took some of those onions and tomatoes and planted them in the vineyard, and God, who takes care of everything, ordained, because the lake was near, that they should recover, blossom and grow. So in summer the gardeners came to me to give me tomatoes. Didn’t God take care of that too? When I was with the cattle, for about a year, not one cow died or even got sick. 

He did not tell me this to praise himself, although his efforts to give life to the dried-up vegetables were not small, but to make me understand how great God’s blessings are for the quiet ones.

In the second year, Brother Constantine was asked if he wanted to guard the vineyard. He replied that he would, but that he needed two things: a well-trained wolfhound and a rifle. And all was well until the grapes began to ripe.

One night, around midnight, the father, who was sitting in a hut with the dog, heard the dog growling. Then he woke up, took his rifle and, with the dog on a leash, went in the direction the dog was pulling him. After a while they came to a place where they could see some small silhouetes in the darkness. Then he let go of the dog and began to run through the thicket after the dog, following the gypsies who had come to steal and who were frantically running away.

The thieves were chased away, the harvest came in with many more tonnes of grapes, and everyone was amazed at the father’s success. And there was something else in Cernica. One day I asked him: “Father, how can I unite my mind with my heart? He said, “You won’t be able to do it until you guard your heart as I guarded the Cernica’s vineyard.” What happened? He was appointed guardian. But it is known that the monasteries of Cernica and Pasha are next to villages of gypsies, who did not respect each other’s property. Because of the theft they committed year after year, the monks were not able to collect too many grapes to put in the barrel.

“In summer, with all the drought (for the vineyard had dried up to a boulder), working in the vineyard was for me – God forgive me – a kind of game, so much did I enjoy it. That summer, at night, I inspected the guards who were posted in the vineyard (in addition to the vineyard workers). For this obedience I asked for a well-trained wolfhound and a salt gun. One dark and foggy night I saw some shadows and called out to the guards: “My brothers!” And when they didn’t answer, I prepared to release my wolfhound. And they, stepping aside, shouted:

“Don’t release the dog, or we’ll shoot it!”

The other night, the dog that was sleeping at my feet felt that someone had entered the vineyard and jumped up, and I ran after him. The one in the vineyard was running so fast, jumping through the trellis and then over the high fence, that I couldn’t understand how he could run away like that. Then I fired some salt pellets and I knew I had hit him because I heard the loud thump of the one who had jumped. The others picked him up and ran with him, wounded as he was. From then on, all that summer, no one came near the monastery’s vineyard.

In Cernica, the abbot came to the vineyard several times in the morning. When he saw that nothing had been stolen, he asked through the refectory: “How can it be that this year nothing has been stolen and in other years so much has been stolen?”

(Fr. Marcu Dumitru – Confession of a Christian. Father Mark of Sihăstria, edited by monk Filoteu Bălan, Petru Vodă Publishing House, 2007, pp. 53-56)