...any hierarch or priest or deacon or subdeacon or reader or chanter who does not fast during Great Lent and Wednesday and Friday is to be deposed.  If a layperson does not fast during these times (unless he cannot fast on account of bodily illness), he is to be excommunicated.  Do you see how the Apostles numbered the Wednesday and Friday fast together with the fast of Great Lent?  Therefore, just as the fast of Great Lent consists in the eating of dry foods, namely, to eat but once a day, at the ninth hour, without consuming oil or wine, likewise, the fast of Wednesday and Friday is to be conducted in the exact same manner.  St. Epiphanios also says: “We fast on Wednesday and Friday until the ninth hour.” Likewise, Philostorgios says that the fast of Wednesday and Friday does not consist in the abstention from meat, but it designates that one is not to eat any food until the evening.  St. Benedict (Canon 41) also designates that the fast of Wednesday and Friday is until the ninth hour.  And Balsamon forbids the consumption of shellfish on Wednesday and Friday just as during Great Lent.  Let us therefore stop insensibly thinking that the fast of Wednesday and Friday is not an Apostolic directive, for behold, the Apostles in their Canons number this fast together with that of Great Lent, and in the Apostolic Constitutions they number it together with the fast of Holy Week, saying:

"One must fast during Holy Week and Wednesday and Friday.” But why should I say that this regulation is only of the Apostles?  It is a regulation of Christ Himself, for this is what the Apostles say in Book V, ch. 14 of the Constitutions:

"He (that is, Christ) commanded us to fast on Wednesday and Friday.” We therefore fast on these days according to the Holy Hieromartyr Peter (Canon 15): “On Wednesday because on this day the council of the Jews was gathered to betray our Lord; on Friday because on this day He suffered death for our salvation.” The divine Jerome says the same thing.

Therefore, because the fast of Great Lent is equal to the fast of Wednesday and Friday it follows that, for those who are sick or weak, the relaxation of the fast is also to be equal during these fasts.  For this reason, as Canons 8 and 10 of Timothy allow a woman who is pregnant during the Great Fast to consume as much wine and food as is necessary for her condition, this also applies to the fast of Wednesday and Friday.  The same holds for those who have become weak from excessive sickness, that is, they are allowed to consume oil and wine during these fasting periods.  So says the divine Jerome: “The fast of Wednesday and Friday is not to be broken unless there is great necessity.” The divine Augustine says the same.

But because those who are lovers of the flesh desire to eat and break the fasts of Great Lent, Wednesday, and Friday, or pretend that they are sick (without actually being so), or if they are indeed sick they say that oil and wine are not sufficient to carry them through their illness, because of these pretenses, a Spiritual Father or hierarch should not believe only the words of those claiming these things, but should ask an experienced and God-fearing physician about their condition, and according to his recommendation, allow the sick to break the fast.

We must also note the following, that just as there must be a fast from food on Wednesday, Friday, and Great Lent, there must also be a fast from pleasures of the flesh.  For this reason weddings cannot take place on these days, because the divine Paul commands that married couples are not to come together during a time of prayer and fasting: “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer” (1 Cor. 7:5).  And the divine Chrysostom, bringing the saying of Joel as a witness: “Sanctify a fast… let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet” (Jl. 2:15-16), says that even newlyweds, who have strong desire, vigorous youthfulness, and unfettered urges, are not to come together during a period of fasting and prayer.  How much, then, are other married couples, who do not have such impulsiveness of the flesh, not to come together?  Therefore, Balsamon says that married couples who do not exercise self-control during the Great Fast are not to commune on Pascha and are also to be penanced.  Likewise, married couples who come together on Wednesday and Friday must be corrected through penances.

Concerning the fast of Monday, even though designated in the Rubrics for monastics, many people in the world however, and especially women, observe this fast.  Worthy of mention and trustworthy is the saying which some wise men put forward concerning fasting on Monday: “Our Lord commands that if our righteousness does not exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees (cf. Mt. 5:20), we will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And because the Pharisees fasted two days of the week, as the Pharisee said: ‘I fast twice in the week’ (Lk. 18:12), we Christians, then, are obligated to fast three days of the week, in order for our righteousness to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.” That the Pharisees fasted on Wednesday and Friday is clearly stated by the divine Chrysostom, explaining the words of the Pharisee: “Twice in the week.” Although Theophylact when explaining the Gospel passage about the Publican and the Pharisee says, along with others, that the Pharisees fasted on Monday and Thursday, not on account of some commandment, but according to tradition, believing that Moses ascended the mountain on Thursday and descended on Monday.  St. Meletios the Confessor says that we should fast on Monday in order to always begin the week with fasting.

Excerpt #3:

PART THREE
COUNSEL FOR THE PENITENT

CHAPTER 1
How Everyone Should Prepare Before Confession

What is repentance?

My brother sinner, this is the preparation you must undergo before you repent and go to confession.  Know firstly that repentance, according to St. John of Damaskos, is a returning from the devil to God, which comes about through pain and ascesis.  So you also, my beloved, if you wish to repent properly, must depart from the devil and from diabolical works and return to God and to the life proper to God.  You must forsake sin, which is against nature, and return to virtue, which is according to nature.  You must hate wickedness so much, that you say along with David: “Unrighteousness have I hated and abhorred” (Ps. 118:163), and instead, you must love the good and the commandments of the Lord so much, that you also say along with David: “But Thy law have I loved” (ibid.), and again: “Therefore have I loved Thy commandments more than gold and topaz” (Ps. 118:127).  In brief, the Holy Spirit informs you through the wise Sirach what in fact true repentance is, saying: “Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins… Return to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity, and hate abominations intensely” (Sir. 17:25-26).

The aspects of repentance

Know secondly that the aspects of repentance are three: contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

Contrition

Contrition is sorrow and perfect grief of the heart, which comes about in a person who, on account of the sins committed, disappointed God and transgressed His divine Law.  This contrition comes only to the perfect and those who are sons of God, because it only proceeds from the love for God, just as a son repents simply because he disappointed his father, and not because he was deprived of his inheritance or because he will be ousted from his father’s house.  Concerning this the divine Chrysostom says: “Groan after you have sinned, not because you are to be punished (for this is nothing), but because you have offended your Master, one so gentle, one so kind, one Who loves you so much and longs for your salvation as to have given even His Son for you.  On account of this, groan.”

Affliction

Related to contrition is affliction, which is also a sorrow and imperfect grief of the heart, which comes about, not because a person disappointed God by his sins, but because that person was deprived of divine grace, lost Paradise, and gained hell.  This affliction belongs to the imperfect, that is, to the hired hands and slaves, because it proceeds not out of love for God, but out of fear and out of love for themselves, just as a hired hand repents on account of losing his wage and a slave repents because he fears the disciplines of his master.

So you also, my brother sinner, if you wish to acquire this contrition and affliction in your heart, and through these for your repentance to be pleasing to God, you must do the following.

Confess to an experienced Spiritual Father

First, search around and learn who is the most experienced Spiritual Father, because Basil the Great says, just as people do not show their maladies and bodily wounds to just any physician, but to experienced physicians who know how to treat them, so also sins must be revealed, not to just anyone, but to those who are able to heal them: “The same fashion should be observed in the confession of sins as in the showing of bodily diseases.  As then men reveal the diseases of the body not to all or to chance comers but to those who are experienced in their treatment; so also the confession of sins ought to take place in the presence of those who are able to treat them, as it is written: ‘Ye that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak’ (Rom. 15:1) - that is, take them away by your care.”

How one is to examine his conscience

Second, just as you would sit down and count your money after a certain business transaction, in like manner go to a particular place, my brother, and two or three weeks before going to the Spiritual Father you found, especially at the beginning of the four fast periods of the year, sit down in that place of quietude, and bowing your head, examine your conscience, which Philo the Jew calls: “The testing of the conscience,” and become: “Not a defender, but a judge of your sins,” according to the divine Augustine.  Consider, like Hezekiah, the whole span of your life in sorrow and bitterness of soul: “I will ponder all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (Is. 38:15).  Consider also how many sins you committed in deed, word, and by coupling with thoughts, after you last confessed, counting the months, weeks, and days.  Remember the people with whom you sinned and the places where you sinned, and diligently reflect upon these things in order to find every one of your sins.  This is how the wise Sirach counsels you from one side saying: “Before judgment, examine yourself” (Sir. 18:20), and from the other, Gregory the Theologian says: “Examine yourself more than your neighbor.  Account of actions is superior to an account of money.  For money is subject to corruption, but actions remain.”

And just as hunters are not satisfied with merely finding a beast in the forest, but attempt through every means to also kill it, likewise, my brother sinner, you should also not be satisfied with merely examining your conscience and with finding your sins, for this profits you little, but struggle by every means to kill your sins through the grief in your heart, namely, through contrition and affliction.  And in order to acquire contrition, consider how much you have wronged God through your sins.  In order to also acquire affliction, consider how much you have wronged yourself through your sins.

Basic Presupposition: Working under the Authority of the Local Bishop

Father Cosmas set out from the beginning to carry out a work that was ecclesiastical, without reference to his person but rather centered on Christ and His Church. Thus, he came to Africa not as an individual performing a personal work, but as a monk of a specific monastery sent to enlist in the service of the Church under the local Bishop. He would often say, “If my work is my own, it will disintegrate as soon as I leave. If, however, it rests on an ecclesiastical base, the Church will assume it and it will continue.”

Father Cosmas wanted everything to be in harmony with the canonical order of the Church. He advanced to the planning and realization of each work he undertook only after securing the blessing of his Bishop. He would not tire of emphasizing, “I offer my services with my Metropolitan, His Eminence Timothy Kontomerko.”

Even when pressed by his own (according to the flesh) father’s fear that financial support would dry up due to certain problems that had arisen, Father Cosmas remained unwavering in his faithfulness to the ecclesiology of the Church:

“I set out from my monastery with the blessings of my Geronda and the other fathers and the explicit command of Father Paisios, who is also my spiritual guide, to work together with the heads of the Church for the good of the Mission. The Church exists wherever there is a Bishop and faithful flock. Without the Bishop the faithful do not constitute the Church, but a Protestant heresy. Consequently, the line that I follow, working together with the local Bishop, is the most advisable, and yet even if I wanted to do something different, you know that I don’t have such a blessing from my monastery.”

In cases where the Bishop is a source of problems, Father Cosmas counseled against creating open rifts with him, as they would “harm rather than help.” He saw that taking “recourse to a worldly model of contemporary form . . . toward the finding of justice, produces no results.” In such cases, where solutions cannot be found, “then it is preferable that we prudently withdrawal with our co-workers, handing over the work to a new contingent, so as not to scandalize innocent souls (Mat. 18:7).”

In response to the opinion of some that one should not support missionary work in an area where the Bishop is not “beyond reproach,” Father Cosmas was not sympathetic. “This position is shown to be baseless and utopian, for humanly judging the situation we consider a purification of ecclesiastical leadership as practically impossible and thus we tread from bad to worse, and this in the very age of the Antichrist. All the same, what should be done? Should we stop the evangelization of the nations? Of course not. On the contrary, we will devote ourselves even more to the work of missions and, with the grace of God and our own stability and love, the mission will continue and advance, and the “blameworthy” bishop along with it. The most important point of all, however, is this: we mustn’t trust in our own spirituality, sincerity and holiness, if we, in fact, have something of these. ‘Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12).”

A Visionary who took One Step at a Time

As a result of conversations with illumined Fathers on Mount Athos and indications he received from his own conscience while in the mission field, Father Cosmas knew to be patient, that the work was just beginning and that he would not see its full flowering in this life. “Continue on,” Fr. Paisios of the Holy Mountain told him, “however, the struggle will be a long one, for the people there will be slow in coming to accept Christianity.”

With this in mind, then, and being a true Orthodox missionary, Father Cosmas was not anxious or persuaded to adopt short-range solutions. Unlike the missionaries of heterodox groups, Father Cosmas made a point of avoiding a predetermined programmatic approach. You won’t find references to five-year programs or slick slogans in the writings of Father Cosmas. He believed that missionary work “is a linkage of one’s own temperament, knowledge, possibilities and local conditions. It is not necessary to follow certain molds . . . The missionary is free and when he is open to the grace of God, the Holy Spirit will speak riches in his heart and indicate to him what to do, gradually and in correspondence to the development of the work. Let us leave room for prayer to act without rushing the situation with narrow logic, absolute measures or the assessments of critics at each stage.”

Father Cosmas was a visionary who took one step at a time. He understood early on that he must see things in terms of generations not years. Thus it was that he laid great stress on the upbringing and training of the young men and women under his care, for the future leadership of the Church. It was for this reason that, in addition to the founding of a monastery, he undertook the establishment of boarding houses at the Mission Center, where young men and women came to stay, study, pray, learn and grow into mature Orthodox Christians. Today, twenty-two years later, the children that first took up residence at the Mission center have become the clerical, monastic and lay leaders of the Church in Zaire, just as Father Cosmas foresaw.

A Fruit-bearing Tree for Generations to Come

Father Cosmas was an exemplification of the Gospel saying of the Lord: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12: 24). His life was a series of “precious deaths” to the “old man” which made his bodily death “fruit-bearing.” These fruits are now offered not just to those who knew him while he lived, but also to all those who have since and will in the future come to know Christ and follow Him into the mission field through Father Cosmas’ example. “The seed has fallen into the earth,” writes Abbot George. “It dies, for if it does not die, it will not sprout forth a beautiful tree, with the sweetest of fruits, under which many souls will find rest.”

Already Abbot George’s words have found bountiful fulfillment, not just in Kolwezi, but also throughout the Orthodox world. The greatness of Father Cosmas’ work and example lies, as he himself has said, in that it has not died with him but continues, on an even greater scale. And not only the work he began in Kolwezi, but also the work of Orthodox mission worldwide. Today, this namesake of Holy Cosmas Aitolos, that regenerator of the race of Hellenes, stands as torchbearer for missionaries to the races of men the world over, in Africa, Latin America and Asia. They cite him as their inspiration and the archetype for their own work. 

In Madagascar, in the span of six short years, the Orthodox Church has been established through the grace of God and under the leadership of the missionary-Bishop Nektarios. Since 1994 over 12,000 souls have been baptized, 62 parishes founded and 26 churches built. His Grace Bishop Nektarios had the blessed Father Cosmas as his model. He looked to his example when starting out, in the erecting of church temples, the providing of philanthropy, in prisons, hospitals, with the feeding of the hungry and, in general, in the whole work of the mission.

On the other side of the world, in Taiwan, there is another “disciple” of Father Cosmas, the Hieromonk Jonah. He too looks up to heaven at the flaming example of Father Cosmas for inspiration and guidance in his newly founded mission. He has only just begun (2001), and the obstacles and challenges facing him are enormous, yet, as with Father Cosmas, his “disposition to self-sacrifice and self-denial,” and “aim of leaving his bones among the natives” has already made it possible for God to act mightily.

Who will be the next to follow in Blessed Father Cosmas’ footsteps? The Lord alone, Who knows every soul before its coming into the world, speaks and reveals which monk or layman should enter next into His vineyard for the reaping of the harvest. When it came time for Father Cosmas to depart this life, the Lord revealed to him his successor in Kolwezi. His abbot George tells us that, “shortly before his final departure [from Mount Athos] for Africa and his death, he visited Father Meletios in his cell and told him that he would continue his work.” And, indeed, a few months later, days after Father Cosmas departed this life, Abbot George called Father Meletios in to suggest that he succeed Father Cosmas, without, however, knowing anything of what Father Cosmas had predicted.

So, the work of the Church will by no means cease, for He “who desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth” is constantly raising up workers for His Vineyard. It is sufficient only that we imitate such blessed ones as Father Cosmas and “hate our life in this world” and “die to it,” so as to “keep it for eternity.” Then, perhaps, we too may be counted worthy of treading that path which guides one on the beautiful journey of our Christian race, which Father Cosmas blazed so resolutely.

Peter Alban Heers
Feast of Saint Cosmas Aitolos, Equal to the Apostles
August 24, 2001

First of all, for John to point Him out and make Him known to the people: “Behold the Lamb of God. . . This is he of whom I said. . .” (Jn. 1: 29-30). John witnesses to Him, presents Him to the people and points to Him, such that his witness for “He who is to come” after him is not held in doubt. What’s more, now God the Father and the Holy Spirit witness to Jesus, the later in the form of a dove (Mat. 3:16-17). From that point onward the masses of people would not question the witness given by John. Now, Jesus has become known, whereas before He was not even known to John (Jn.1:31), for, even though he was related to Him (Lk. 1:36), he had passed nearly his entire life in the desert, preaching and baptizing. God arranged matters thus, such that the world would not criticize John that he preached of Jesus on account of the kinship and friendship he maintained with Him.
Secondly, Jesus accepted baptism by John in order to fulfill “all righteousness” (Mat. 3:14-15). “Righteousness” here signifies the fulfillment of the commandments of God, whereas “righteous” was he who had fulfilled all the commandments (Lk. 1:6). Thus, the Lord was baptized by John so that not even this ordinance concerning baptism would remain unfulfilled by God, since He alone fulfilled “all righteousness.”
Behold the purpose of the baptism of the man Jesus and the reasons why He accepted to be baptized by John. The Christian baptism “of water and the Spirit” which began later was established and is carried out for other reasons and has a completely different aim.
If one speaks of age limitations, why is it that the heterodox don’t choose thirty years of age to be baptized? The Savior neither prescribed a particular age nor was He bound by an age limit. When He spoke of baptism, which He himself instituted, he indicated the Mystery’s great importance, thereby not making it necessary to declare that it should be bestowed upon everyone, and hence, upon children. If He did not say it directly, he said it indirectly with much clarity, for within the word “one” or “someone” is contained everyone.
As far as it pertains to John the Baptist, it is true that he preached repentance and baptized only those who repented and they could only have been adults. However, his baptism is not to be identified with ours, but was a baptism of preparation, a symbolic action, or an act with a ritual or formal character – as was shown above – without it being necessarily required of everyone. That is also why it was unnecessary to confer it upon children.
I might also be of the opinion to forgo baptizing children if they were to live however long they desired, whether men or women, deep into old age and to desire baptism whenever they wanted. Yet, what does your teacher tell you: are we sure that we will live until we are 30, 50, or 100? Are you not familiar with the passage in Holy Scripture which says: “ye know not what shall be on the morrow” (Jam. 4:14); and elsewhere: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Lk. 12:20); and elsewhere: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Mt. 25:13). . .

In May of 1948, on the feast of Ss. Constantine and Helen, Father Cleopa delivered a homily in which he said, May God grant that our own rulers might become as the Holy King and Queen were, that the Church might be able to also commemorate them unto the ages. The next day the state police took him to prison, leaving him in a bedless cell without bread or water for five days. After being released Father Cleopa, upon good counsel, fled to the mountains of Sihastria, where he lived in a in a hut mostly underground. There the elder prayed night and day seeking the help of God and the Theotokos.

During this time the elder was visited by the grace of God in the following way. Fr. Cleopa told his disciples that when he was building his hut, birds would come and sit on his head. The first time he served Liturgy on a stump in front of his hut, as he was communing the Holy Mysteries, a flock of birds came and gathered, such as he had never seen before. As he gazed upon them in astonishment, he noticed that each one had the sign of the Cross marked on it forehead.

Another time, after the preparation for Liturgy and having read all the prayers, he set the Antimension on the tree stump and began the Liturgy with the exclamation, Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages! Again the birds appeared, and as they perched in the branch of the tree they began to sing in beautiful and harmonic voices. Fr. Cleopa asked himself, What could this be? And an unseen voice whispered to him, These are your chanters on the cliros. These signs and others encouraged the Elder immensely during his time of exile.

In the summer of 1949 Father Cleopa moved to the monastery of Slatina with thirty monks who were advanced in virtue, intent on renewing the spiritual life there as well. His interaction with the pious Christians living in the region of northern Moldavia increased his pastoral experience and missionary activity and gave him the opportunity to work with great zeal for the aims of the Gospel of Christ. In particular, his preaching, personal counsel and spiritual direction, compassion and love spread his renown throughout the country. Through these and other struggles for the salvation of men in Christ, Father Cleopa became the most celebrated and respected Abbot of the monasteries of Romania and a spiritual father with pre-eminent spiritual authority. Villager and intellectual, monk and layman, young and old, healthy and sick, bishop and priest - everyone found in Father Cleopa a true Spiritual Father. Father Cleopa was a model of life for all, ready to offer to everyone whatever he could, to counsel and give rest and lead all to Christ with amazing conviction and authority.

During this time the Metropolitan of Moldavia asked Father Cleopa to assume the spiritual guidance of most of the monasteries in the region: Putna, Moldovita, Riska, Sihastria, and the Sketes of Sihla and Rareau, according to the prototype of Slatina

In 1952 Father Cleopa was arrested briefly for a second time by the secret police. Having been released again, he and a monastic brother travelled once again to the mountains of Moldavia until the situation normalized. There in the mountains the elder battled the demons, lived side by side with wild animals and prayed night and day, receiving confession and communion from his co-struggling monastic brother.

In 1953 he resigned from the abbacy. In 1956, after assisting in the reorganisation of the Poutna Monastery and the Raraeu and Gaie sketes, Father Cleopa returned to Sihastria, the monastery of his beloved repentance. Here he continued in his spiritual activity with prayer, by going deeper into the writings of the Holy Fathers, and in the guidance and spiritual advancement of his many disciples.

From 1959 to 1964, the Church of Romania suffered acute persecution from the Communist regime, with the monasteries undergoing their most difficult days of the twentieth century. In 1959 the government decreed that all monks under the age of fifty-five and all nuns under the age of fifty must leave the monasteries. By the spring of 1960 the state police had removed more than four thousand monastics from Romanias monasteries. Once again Father Cleopa was forced into the mountains of Moldavia where he spent more than twelve hours a day in prayer. It was during this time of exile that the elder wrote several of his well-known guides to the spiritual life for priests and monks. In 1964 the Communist persecution abated and the Church once again experienced a good measure of freedom.

In the summer of 1964, to the great joy of all the monks of Sihastria, Father Cleopa returned from the desert and his silence and within days the monastery was filled with pilgrims seeking his counsel and direction. Thus began once again the apostolic-missionary work of Elder Cleopa, delivering soul-benefiting words of instruction to the faithful, and confessing and directing the pious.

The first duty Father Cleopa sought from the faithful was the devout preservation of the Orthodox Faith, meaning all of the dogmas and mysteries of the Holy Orthodox Church, for without true Faith, even if all possible good works are performed, no one can be saved.

Secondly, the Elder gave great significance to the confession of sins, admonishing the faithful to confess at least four times a year. He taught them: Brother, when you see that your father or mother is sick, don’t call the doctor first, but the priest, for the doctor cannot add to our life even one minute. And if he could lengthen our life, he doesn’t do this of himself. Everything rests with God!

The Elder recommended generally that one should read the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God together with the morning prayers of the Church, the Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos in the evening before bed with the oil lamp lit, and the rest of the day to pray the Jesus Prayer as much as possible. However, more than anyone, the Elder prayed for the Church, the faithful, those fallen into great sins, those undergoing the trials and tragedies of life. The prayers of the Elder brought about miraculous results: sicknesses were cured and the ill were returned from the hospital wards healthy, examinations by doctors unexpectedly had positive results and generally the blessings of God, by the prayers of the Elder, were spread everywhere.

Father Cleopa never tired of encouraging the faithful in almsgiving and showing mercy on others. He would tell them in confession: Dont turn anyone away from you without showing mercy. If you dont have money to give him, give him potatoes, some bread, a kerchief, give him something, even a scrap. If you give something, it wont seem hard to you to give the next time something more, for your almsgiving and mercy arises to God like a thunderbolt. Why? Two great virtues are combined: almsgiving and humility.

The primary duty that he asked christian families to fulfil was the birth and upbringing of children. Following the Holy Canons of the Church, Father Cleopa absolutely condemned the aborting of children and the killing of embryos, one of the greatest sins a Christian could commit.

In 1965 with the exhortation of his disciples and with the blessing of many hierarchs, Father Cleopa began to write homilies, teachings, and soul-benefiting epistles for monastics as well as laymen. Specifically, knowing well the community life of the Romanian people, the misfortunes of the clergy, and perhaps most of all the fanatical proselytism of heterodox groups in Romania over the past thirty years, Father Cleopa wrote many apologetic works for the support of the Orthodox Faith and the correction of false teachings. The most important of these works include Discourse on Visions and Dreams, containing seven discussions dealing with the problems of dreams, visions and the question of frequent Holy Communion and Heresiology, a monumental work containing thirty-three dialogues covering the wide range of anti-dogmatic and anti-orthodox teachings of both the heterodox and the faithful but simpleminded. This work was published in 1981 under the title On the Orthodox Faith. Other works with moral-instructional character include Homilies for the Feasts (1976), containing thirty-six sermons on the great feasts of the year, Homilies for Monks, a massive work containing forty-eight philokalian sermons, Homilies for the Sundays and Feasts of the Year, also massive, and Homilies for Laymen.

These and other activities constituted the great spiritual missionary work that the Elder Cleopa carried out from the Fall of 1964 until the second of December, 1998 when he gave his soul into the hands of God. During many of these years the Elder divided his day into three eight-hour periods. During the first, at night, he rested a little and prayed. During the next period he read the Holy Fathers and wrote, and during the third period he gave himself up to his disciples and the pilgrims who came to him from near and far for confession and instruction. In order to be able to pray and write undisturbed, every morning he left his near cell, five minutes away from the monastery, and went to one twenty minutes away to the north. He remained there alone the whole day writing down extracts of his experience, and in the afternoon he came down to the near cell to receive the faithful and confess the monks.

Fr. Cleopa, as with every venerable servant of Christ, was above all a man of prayer. As a boy, the young Constantine prayed often from books and learned many prayers by heart and continually repeated them. As a youth he developed a great love for reading the Psalter, which he repeated daily. He also knew by heart the Akathist to the Saviour, the Akathist to the Mother of God, the Canon of Repentance to the Saviour, and the Paraclesis to the Mother of God, which he said daily. At the same time, he made three to four hundred prostrations and bows each day.

Under the influence of his ascetically minded older brothers Basil and George, he also began to force himself to become accustomed to the Prayer of the Heart, at which the older two became advanced at a young age.

As Abbot of Sihastria Monastery, being very busy during the daytime hours, Fr. Cleopa would pray more at night. He would sleep two hours before Matins and again two more hours after the service, after which he would perform his entire prayer rule for the day, which took three hours. Over the course of the ten years he spent in the wilderness during his three exiles, he devoted countless hours to the Prayer of the Heart. Even the fingernail with which he would pull the knots of his prayer-rope was deformed because of a lifetime of practicing this prayer.

Fr. Cleopa would speak to his disciples about pure Prayer of the Heart as if he were speaking of someone elses experience: I met with someone who had toiled with hunger, with thirst, with cold, with nakedness in the woods and he told me that he had once spend the night in the home of a pious Christian man. In the evening before Sunday, he completed his rule of prayer. At the house of a neighbour there was a wedding with music. The desert-dweller, being at prayer, had before him an icon of the Mother of God. Standing and pondering, he thought upon the word of St. John of the Ladder which says, Some say songs can raise the advanced to more exalted contemplation. Thus, hearing the music from the wedding, he said to himself, If these people know how to sing so beautifully, how do the angels in heaven sing, who give praise to the Mother of God? From this feeling his mind descended into his heart, and he stayed in this prayer for over two hours, feeling much sweetness and warmth. His tears flowed continually, his heart was enflamed and he sensed Christ - how He conversed with his soul. Such a fragrance of the Holy Spirit came upon him then, and he felt so much spiritual warmth, that he said to himself, O Lord, I want to die in this moment!

After two hours, his mind came out from the heart and remained with a sweet sorrow, a joy, a consolation, and an incredible spiritual warmth for a month. The heaven in his heart could no longer be drawn to something from this world, because the tears that stream during such times of prayer, being from the Holy Spirit, wash away all defilement and sinful imaginings and the soul remains pure.

Fr. Cleopa would say of the Prayer of the Heart, When the mind descends into the heart, then the heart opens up and then it closes. That is, the heart absorbs Jesus, and Jesus absorbs our heart. In that moment the Bridegroom Christ meets with the bride, that is, our soul!

For most of Elder Cleopas life God blessed him with good health. When he reached his seventieth year, however, the Elder began to feel tired and fatigued. The years passed in the mountains as well as his trials under the Communists had taken their toll. From 1985 until his repose in 1998 the Elder suffered from illnesses such as a double hernia, kidney stones, a spasmodic right hand, the removal of a cyst, and other sicknesses. All of these trials and illnesses kept the Elder alert and expectant for the arrival of the last hours of his life, always immersed in unceasing prayer and thinking on Christ.

The last twenty years of his life the Elder spent in increased and concentrated prayer: fourteen to fifteen hours a day. He had mystical moments when he did not want to speak to anyone, not even his cell attendant. From four until eight the Elder prayed his morning rule; afterward he confessed monks and lay people until about four in the afternoon, when he began his evening prayer rule, consisting of the canon of repentance, canons to the Theotokos, the Supplicatory Canon, Small Compline and other services. At night the fathers made ready the veranda where the Elder would stand alone in prayer, awe and wonder at the Creators majestic handiwork, which he loved very much - the sheep and all of Gods creation - until sometime in the midst of the night when he would rest a bit before beginning again.

In the last months of his life the Elder could be heard saying often: Now I am going to my brothers! and Leave me to depart to my brothers! and I am going to Christ! Pray for me, the sinner.

On the eve of the Elders departure for the next life he began to read his morning rule, when his disciple said to him: Geronda, its evening now. These prayers should be read tomorrow morning. The Elder answered him saying, I am reading them now because tomorrow morning I am going to my brothers. On the morning of December 2nd, 1998, at about 2:20 a.m. Elder Cleopa departed for eternity and His Christ.

In the three days that followed until the funeral thousands of faithful converged on Sihastria to be close to their Elder one last time in this life. The funeral was attended by huge numbers of the faithful with tears in their eyes upon seeing their Elder leaving them and yet also filled with resurrectional joy and the Paschal hymn Christ is risen on their lips. A great monastic and hesychastic period for the Church of Romania came to an end with the departure of the Elder Cleopa to the place where the just repose. A golden page was inserted into the history of the Romanian Orthodox Church with its beginning and ending at the hesychastic Monastery of Sihastria in Moldavia.

This prologue has been compiled from two different sources: The Life and Struggles of Elder Cleopa: Romanian Hesychast and Teacher and Spiritual Dialogues with Romanian Fathers, both by Archimandrite Ioanichie Balan in Greek translation. Some excerpts have also been taken from the forthcoming book of the St. Herman Brotherhood, Shepherd of Souls, Elder Cleopa the New Hesychast of Romania, also written by Fr. Ioanichie Balan.