Hieromonk Ilie Cioruță from Cernica Monastery. A figure of the Romanian Paterikon
This hermit was born in the village of Vasile Alecsandri, Tulcea county, in a family with ten children.
Orphaned by his parents, he attended the Theological Seminary in Constanța, then married, studied at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest and became a priest in Ilfov County, pastoring several villages. Here he carried out an outstanding missionary work, with great zeal for Christ, receiving no payment for his services and doing much charity work with the poor and the sick.
Between 1962 and 1964 he was imprisoned by the atheist regime for his zeal in the service of Christ’s Church.
When his wife died and his children were ordained in 1974, after 50 years of service, Father Iorgu, after his baptismal name, left the world and was ordained a monk in the monastery of Cernica, near Bucharest, with the name of Hieromonk Ilie.
Full of zeal for Christ, as a priest and confessor, with great piety, humility and total self-denial, he carried out the holy services for another 22 years, glorifying God day and night and forming many spiritual sons. He was always a man of justice and would not tolerate injustice.
He was always surrounded by the faithful and the poor. He regularly fasted for two or three days, without food and water from Thursday to Saturday; he spent every day at the relics of St. Calinicus, confessiong the people, spiritually comforting everyone and driving out evil spirits from people.
Knowing in advance the day of his death and leaving a written testament that he should be buried in the cemetery, without a coffin, among the poor, he asked everyone for forgiveness and fell asleep peacefully on 8 January 1997, leaving no possessions behind and being mourned by his many spiritual sons.
O Lord, include in the company of Your saints the blessed Hieromonk Elias, the humble and much needed!
He often said: “When I entered the monastery, I wanted to kiss the stones out of happiness!”
Fr. Elias loved to give alms and urged all who came to him to do so. He had a thick notebook with the names of thousands of people who had given alms in the churches, and he remembered them all his life. When the disciples gave alms, he told them: “You’ve made me younger, I feel like I’m 20!
On 1 January 1997 he wrote a note which he displayed for all the monks to see: “Brothers, I am dying, come and make peace with me”.
(Archimandrite Ioanichie Bălan – The Romanian Paternity, Sihăstria Monastery Publishing House, pp. 731-732)