St. John Jacob (the Romanian) – a Hermit from the Holy Land with complete Holy Relics

 

The Life of Father John (Iacob) the Romanian

Fom the Miracles of St John

 

The Miracles of Saint John Jacob Performed During His Reverence life

  Father loanichius Paraiala (his spiritual child), as a result of a strike at the right elbow, had got an infection, and after a few years of suffering had got a tuberculosis of the bones. He had an open wound at his elbow, and through the infected wound, at the same time with the matter that drained all the time, there began to come out chips and pieces of decomposed bones.

  Then the abbot of the monastery took father loa­nichius to a hospital in Jerusalem where the doctors decided that the father’s arm had to be cut, to which he said: ‘If I am to die from this, I want to die with all my limbs complete’, and he refused all medical inter­vention, running away from the hospital. When he arrived at the monastery, Saint John began to bandage him up, and to wash his wound with tea plants, and after a few washings the wound closed and healed.

  Father loanichius said that as soon as Saint John put his hand on him, he felt a great quietness, the pains left him, and he was filled with a holy peace and joy, so that he felt no kind of pain .any more.

  His arm recovered, but in exchange, it became rigid from the elbow.

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  After the moving of Saint John at the cave of Saint Anna from Hazeva, father loanichius Paraiala carried with the donkey of the monastery some pieces of board, and some pieces of plate taken from some plate barrels, in order to separate the cell of Saint John. While going on a narrow and winding path, the donkey was frightened by a bird that flew out of the bush, and it threw father in an abyss of almost 20 metres.

  Then father loanichius broke the same arm also from the elbow, he hurt his head and legs, and he could hardly get out of the abyss, and he could hardly arrive at the cave of the Saint who, when he saw him, was frightened too, by the way he looked.

  He washed him, he tied his wounds, and his right hand was hanging from his elbow because the bones that had been caught and blocked were now broken, and his arm   

  Then Saint John tore a shirt, and with some towels wrapped up around his neck, he tied his arm a little bent from the elbow, and in a short time it cured again, and his right arm remained that way a litlle bent and fixed, so that he couldn’t even do the cross.

  But the way he was, he worked in the garden, in the kitchen, he made bread and communion bread, he cleaned the church, he lit the icon lamps, and he did all the other obediences, because for a long time only he and father abbot Ambrose had been in the mo­nastery.

  So, this way, Saint John healed father Ioanichius twice.

  When Saint John was at the Monastery of St. Sava, there came a lot of old Bedouins or pilgrims, that fell ill on the way to the monastery, and as soon as he put his hands on them, the pains relieved them, and in a short time they recovered. The Moslem Bedouins that had known him tell about these, and they used to call him the doctor of the monastery.

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  When Saint John was at the cave one night, right at midnight some Jews came with their lanterns light­ing, searching the caves where once hundreds of her­mits had lived there. These were raking and digging, looking for old patrimony objects.

  Not far from the cell of the Saint it was a cave in which there were put tens of skulls, and hundreds of bones of the Holy Fathers that had ended their lives in the caves.

  When the robbers came near that cave, the Saint saw their flash lights, and heard them talking what they were planning to do.

Then Saint John with his hands up to the sky cried: ‘God, will you allow those outlaws break the quietness of your elected ones?’ And a great miracle happened right on the spot because the mountain fell down co­vering the entrance mouth of the cave, and the robbers ran away frightened falling at the bottom of the abyss from where they could hardly get out wounded, and nobody could disturb the peace of those saints.

  There it became real God’s word that: if you have as faith as a mustard seed, you will move the mountains, too.

  Here is how at Saint John’s pray the mountain quaked, and it did not allow those outlaws to come nearer and to disturb the peace of His Saints.

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  When Saint John lived at the cave, a Greek monk called Mitrofan, who was a painter came from the Holy Mountain. When he saw the loneliness and the quiet­ness of the desert, he told Saint John that he wanted to come there too, but that first he had to go home to put order into his problems, and then he would come, but the saint told him: ‘If you want to come, come as you are now, and if you want to go to put order into your house, you will never come.’

 Then father Mitrofan returned to the Holy Moun­tain, and he began to paint again some churches for two years with the thought of gainning some money, so that he won’t be in need of anything when he came in the desert.

  Father Mitrofan had an apprentice that worked with him at the paintings.

  That one stole him some bmshes, and other mate­rials of great value, and the father scolded him, after which at night the· apprentice waited for him on a path and killed him.

  So the prediction of Saint John became real, that if he did not come the way he was, then he would never come.

  Another miracle performed by Saint John through his word when he was alive, it is told by His Reverence himself in what follows. I express exactly the words and lines written by Saint John: ‘Two years ago when father Sava came for the first time to the Jericho being very ill and disappointed, I wrote these lines to him and I asked him to keep his courage, and not to abandon us. Here is what I wrote to him then – here are the lines to father confessor Sava:

Keep the poverty of old age a little more,

Stop on the edge of life,

And first, think:

To whom do you leave your sons?

There where the Heavenly Height

Will see you, Holy Saint Sava,

He will ask you the question,

About the state of our souls.

So, prepare your disciple,

Which is worth taking your place,

Ahead the flock so poor,

And then you move in peace!

  So, writing to him those lines, our old Father listened to me, and with God’s gift he gained strength and he lived two years more.’

 

The Miracles Performed qfter He Passed Away to God

  After the Relics of Saint John were brought, and they were put into the church, the Patriarch Benedict and another two bishops, summoned the synod in order to bury back the Saint saying he was not a saint, and he was not a Greek. Others said that he should be put in the grave of the monastery that was under the church, having an entrance under the staircase that climbed up to the belfry and the monastery.

  But there were deposited there wheelbarrows, spades, sacks of cement, and all kinds of tools because at that time it was made the way that descended from the road to the monastery; and so, the Saint was left into the church because they did not have where to put him.

  After a while when the Patriarch and the two bi­shops saw that there were many pilgrimages, and many people talked about St. John from Hazeva, they summoned  again the synod, and they decided to bury St. John.

  Immediately after that decision, the Patriarch had an infarct and he died, one of the bishops had a kidney obstruction, and in a year, all the three of them that wanted to bury St. John, died.

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  There came a group of pilgrims from Greece to cross themselves at the Holy Places, and when they arrived at Hazeva, a woman believer among them, called Hellen, when coming near the holy coffin of the Saint, said: ‘ 1’d better did not come to see this dead man which some consider to be a saint.’

  When she arrived late at night to Jerusalem she couldn’t sleep, and when at daybreak she fell into a light slumber, she dreamt St. John young, with a lighted face, handsome, and he said to her: ‘Hellen! Why were you frightened by me, and what harm had I done to you?’

  The following day Hellen wanted to come to Ha­zeva, and to pray the Saint to forgive her, but that wasn’t possible because she had to go back to Greece together with the other pilgrims.

  Since then, a headache and a fright had kept bother­ing her until the following year she came, and she crossed at the holy coffin of the Saint, and then she healed, and she asked father Ioanichius to give her an icon of the Saint. Father had no icon, but he gave her a photo she received with great gladness, and every time she came to Jerusalem from then on, she said that the Saint helped her very much when she mentioned him in her prayers. That way she brought to the know­ledge of many people from Greece the power of St. John Jacob the Romanian from Hazeva.

  Another Christian woman from Australia dreamt a monk who told her to gather money for a holy coffin of a Saint with whole Saint Relics, but she was not told what was the name of the Saint. The following day she began to tell the dream to some more acquaintances, but nobody knew anything about that Saint.

  After the Holy Relics of St. John were descended from the cave, and they were put into the church in a coffin, a group of orthodox pilgrims from Cyprus came. In that group there was a Christian woman called Cleo­patra, who had seen in her dream St. John, who told her he hadn’t where to stay, he hadn’t a holy coffin. Then Cleopatra paid the money, so that the holy coffin of the Saint could be made, on which it was written it had been donated by Theodosius and Cleopatra Marcu from Cyprus.

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  After father abbot Amfilohius had passed away to eternity, the monastery had been left without an abbot for four years.

  During that time father Ioanichius was the only monk that kept the icon lamps burning, read daily the seven praises, received the pilgrims coming to pray, and took care of the whole monastery. Then there came a Serbian father monk from the Holy Mountain, called hiero-monk Gregory who served the Holy Liturgy on Sun­days and on holidays, together with father Ioanichius and nun Magdalene, when they came to receive the Holy Eucharist.

  When father Gregory went to incense, after he incensed the Holy Icons and the Holy Relics, he used to pass on, without incensing the holy coffin ofSt. John because he had no piety for the Saint, and he said that he knew from the Patriarchate that father John was not a Saint, but father Ioanichius made him a Saint. One morning when he came out with the censer, he saw St. John standing up near the holy coffin and he told him: ‘You have incensed all the saints. Do you have any­thing against me? What wrong have I done to you that you don’t incense me, and speak ill of me?’ From then on, father Gregory had great piety, and he prayed a lot to St. John, and he said to many people what had happened at the holy coffin of the Saint.

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  In 1988 the Patriarch Diodor of Jerusalem, named as an abbot at Hazeva hieromonk Sinesius, who had been before, the intendant of the Patriarch. Father abbot Sinesius was a young man of 24 when he came to Hazeva.

  Like the other Greeks of the Greek Patriarchate neither that one had piety for St. John saying to father Ioanichius that he knew from other fathers and bishops that father John was a Romanian monk, and because of some sins he hadn’t putrefied, and that father Ioani­chius cried up to all the pilgrims that came to Hazeva that he was a Saint, but in fact he was not.

  In 1989 there came to Hazeva a Greek deacon from the Holy Mount, called Nichiforos.

  That one was born in Germany. His father was a Turk that worked in a car factory, and his mother was a Greek from Greece, who had gone to Germany with her mother since childhood, and they had setded there.

  Nichiforos’s grandmother (his mother’s mother) was of Macedonian origin, she had left Constanta in her youth with her parents, and she had gone to Greece where she had married a Greek, who had died after Nichiforos’s mother had been born.

  Nichiforos’s grandmother grew him up in God’s fright. She took him and she christened him when he was older, in Greece, without his father knowing it, because he was a Moslem. When he was 18 he went to the Holy Mount and turned a monk, then after two years he went to America where the metropolitan bishop Natanail ordained him a deacon.

  After a short time he went again to the Holy Mount where he made himself a hermit. Then he came to Jeru­salem, where he met father abbot Sinesius, and that took him to Hazeva because he was alone between two Romanians and a Serbian.

  Now, there were two Greeks against St. John and the two Romanians. Although the hieromonk Gregory had great piety for St. John, he could not say anything because he was also a foreigner as we were.

  One day father abbot Sinesius scolded father Ioani­chius because he took some Romanians to pray to the holy coffin of the Saint, and he gave them some books with the poems and the learnings ‘Spiritual Food’, and he forbade him to write anything about St. John saying that, that buried corpse stank (had a fetid smell), and that he had to be buried.

  Then father Ioanichius sighed deeply, and he told him in my presence: ‘It won’t be 40 days, and you’ll see with your eyes, and your disciple too, if St. John is a Saint or not.’

  The next morning I saw father abbot Sinesius enter­ing the church with his beard out, and when father Ioanichie asked him why he had cut his beard he said: ‘A monk came last night in my cell which beat me terribly, and set fire on me, but there was nothing that could be burnt in my cell except for my beard.’

  Then every night, for 40 days, that monk would come and beat him the whole night, until he confessed his guilt and he prayed to the Saint to forgive him.

  During that time Nichiforos contradicted us all the time with regard to St. John to whom father Ioanichius told: ‘Never mind, St. John will take care of you, too.’ After that, Nichiforos began to go to the Bedouins, to eat and to sleep with them in their huts. After 6 months Nichiforos went to the Jericho, he took off his monk clothes, he left the great hermit clothes, he baptized as a Moslem, he got the name of Mustafa, and he married an Arabian widow with two children.

  During that time father abbot Sinesius was moved too, in his place the Patriarch of Jerusalem brought another father abbot from the Monastery of St. Sava, father Anthony.

  But as the other father abbot, neither that one had too great a piety for St. John, he didn’t treat us like Sinesius did, in exchange, for him, the Saint was father John, not the Saint.

 After St. John was canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch Diodor of Jerusalem settled to send to Romania two Metropolitan bishops of the Jerusalem Patriarchate to a Pan-Orthodox Synod that was organized by the Metropolitan Church of Mol­davia in J assy.

  The Patriarch of Jerusalem decided to send to Ro­mania together with that two Metropolitan bishops, a piece from the Holy Relics of St. John.

  Then, the Patriarch sent father abbot Antony to bring him a finger from the hand of the Saint to send it to Romania.

  Father Abbot Anthony was in a hurry, he opened the holy coffin of the Saint, he broke in a hurry a finger from the right hand of the Saint, and that was all. He remained stiff with the Saint’s finger in his hands, and he felt a mortal cold shiver from top to toe. He felt on his head a cold hand, then a stream as cold as ice began to flow down his spine, after which some hot waves suffocated him, trying to take his soul of his chest, his heart beat so hardly that he thought something was breaking in his head, and he had a terrible buzzing in his ears, and he could not hear or see anything.

  He would have wanted to shout at St. John to ask for his forgiveness but he had no voice. But his mind was clear and he said in his thought: ‘Saint John, I had sinned before you out of ignorance but now, please forgive me, and don’t punish me for my ignorance and my sins.’

  Then it was a great miracle, and father Anthony was set free from those terrible ties, after which he put the Saint’s finger in his place, he fell down on his knees near the Saint’s holy coffin, he prayed a lot, after which crying, he entered the altar, he dressed with all the priest’s vestments, he burned the censer, he incensed the holy altar and the church, the holy coffin of St. John and for the first time a Greek priest sang to him the hymn of the Saint: ‘Into you, father … ‘ then he knelt again by the holy coffin of the Saint, he prayed a lot after which he opened the lid of the holy coffin, he kissed the hands of St. John, he took with great care and shyness the Saint’s finger, he put it in a silver box wrapped in a vestment, and he carried it to the Patriar­chate. That miracle was performed in August 1992.

  Since then, the father abbot had prayed much to St. John, he sang his hymn, and he mentioned him in all his prayers, and then he mentioned St. John with all the other Saints.

  Not long after that, a group of worshippers from Greece entered the church, that left after they had prayed. Their guide saw that a woman was missing, so he went back to the monastery thinking she fell, and she had an accident on the stairs. He called for her, and he looked for her everywhere, and he found her by the Saint’s holy coffin, crying and praying, on her knees.

  At that time I was in the church, and I changed the candles left burning by the worshippers. When the guide entered the church, father abbot Anthony came with him. Then the guide shouted at the woman saying: ‘Ela Maria. Let’s go Maria, the coach is leaving, and it’s a long way to go to the other monasteries, too.’

  Maria stood up crying, she took the ring off her finger, she took off from her neck a golden chain with a medallion and a golden cross, she took her watch off her hand, and sobbing she said: ‘Let everybody leave because I don’t need anything from now on, and I don’t go anywhere because now I healed here at the holy coffin of the Saint from a hard disease I had suffered for 15 years, after I had given birth to a boy called Ioannis (John).’

  In April 1994 a group of worshippers from Greece came to Hazeva. There was in the group a woman with her daughter. The mother was almost 50 years old, and the daughter was almost 18 years old.

  When the daughter tried to come near the holy coffin of St. John with a burning candle in her hands, a Greek monk Ghermanos stopped her because she was not dressed properly. Her mother being together with her daughter, making great noise, was down upon monk Ghermanos saying that her daughter, being a young lady, could dress as she liked. Monk Ghermanos re­plied: ‘The church is a holy place, a place of praying. It IS not a place of entertainment, and not a beach where you can go no matter how, even undressed.’

  The daughter felt uneasy, she went out on the bal­cony, and when her mother approached to kiss the holy coffin of St. John, the Saint turned his head to her he sighed deeply, and the Saint’s face was covered all over by water drops.

  The woman screamed, and she ran away down the stairs scared, descending towards the gate, where she fell down breaking both her legs.

  All were frightened by that happening. The fathers of the monastery took a litter, and they helped the woman to be carried to the coach.

  The woman confessed in front of everybody that she was guilty because she hadn’t brought up her daughter well, and when she came near to worship, she doubted the Saint, thinking he was a corpse, not a Saint.

  Then asking father Ghermanos for forgiveness, she confessed that Saint John punished her for her sins.

  Since then, St. John had remained with his head turned to the right, as ifhe reproved those who approach without piety, and dressed indecently.

 (Taken from “The Life, The Miracles and the Akathistos Hymn of St. John Jacob, from Hazeva)

Akathistos Hymn to Saint John Jacob the Romanian 

(written by Saint John Jacob’s disciple, father Ioanichius Paraiala)

 

Kontakion 1:

To thee, O great hermit of the Church of Christ, O pastoral adviser of the monks and offspring of Moldavia, come all ye faithful Christians to praise and cry out:

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Ekos 1:

The Creator of Angels and of mankind, our Lord God Almighty has chosen thee from the beginning to leave all vanity of this world and with thy heart enflamed by divine love, thou ran to the salvation of reclusory, for which wondering we sing to thee:

Rejoice, thou who from childhood hast loved God;

Rejoice, for been burned by thine divine love, thou ran away from all vanity;

Rejoice, thou who rose from faithful parents Maxim and Katherine;

Rejoice, thou who didst receive the name of the Holy Prophet Elijah at thy baptism;

Rejoice, thou who wast left an orphan since childhood;

Rejoice, for Maria thy grandmother took care of thee;

Rejoice that for a while she was thy earthly protector;

Rejoice for she had taught thee in thine Holy Christian Faith since childhood;

Rejoice, for thy childhood had been difficult;

Rejoice, for it hast helped thee to gain eternal life;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 2:

Having followed the schools of the time in thy village and alienated from thy acquaintances O father, thou hast kept in thy soul the yearning for the supreme serving of Christ, never taking part in childish games but always singing from thy heart to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 2:

When thou wert only 10 years old, thy grandmother and only earthly comforter dying, thou wert entrusted to see in the Holy Altar of the Church, a marvelous vision of Thy Resurrection of Christ our Savior, for which we sing to thee:

Rejoice, for having a pure heart thou saw Christ our God;

Rejoice for at the grave at thy parents, thou often used to go to burn candles;

Rejoice, for God hast been thy only comfort, strengthening and hope;

Rejoice, thou who from early childhood didst show to be a fervent worker of the prayer of Jesus;

Rejoice, for thy heart was not attached to vain things;

Rejoice, for thou hast taken Christ’ Pure Mother as thy protector;

Rejoice, for in thy loneliness, thou didst find quietness;

Rejoice, for in God’s will thou hast entrusted thy life;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 3:

Having finished primary school in thy native village, the gymnasium then the secondary school, thou hast confessed thy thoughts to thy Elder – Abbot Eugene Laiu, wanting to become a monk and to sing unceaselesily to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 3:

Giving up all the vanity for Christ’s love and praying before the relics of the Holy Martyr John the New from Suceava, thou didst follow thy way to sacred Monastery of Neamt, for which we sing to thee:

Rejoice, Allhappy soul loved by God;

Rejoice, for bishop Nicodim Munteanu didst accept thee;

Rejoice, for thou wert given the obedience to the sick;

Rejoice, for thou didst help many by learning the physician’s skills

Rejoice, thou who didst wonder at thine creation;

Rejoice, thou who day and night un-ceaselessly prayed to Thy Heavenly Father;

Rejoice, for thy great zeal in reading spiritual councils;

Rejoice, thou who greatly loved thine Holy Church, thine people and the spiritual writings;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 4:

After becoming a monk, thou took the name of the Great Baptist John, O pious father and sought God’s care day and night, for thee wert to live the life of a hermit in places where thine great prophet dwellest and sung to God: Alleluia!

Ekos 4:

As once Abraham left thy country and thy relatives, o father so didst thee left Moldavia for thine Holy Places, for which we sing to thee:

Rejoice, thou follower in the faith of the Patriarchs;

Rejoice, for resembling the Saints with thy strive;

Rejoice, thou – obedient with Abraham;

Rejoice, with Jacob who saw God;

Rejoice, thou without wickedness like Moses;

Rejoice, like David in meekness;

Rejoice, for thou didst show the patience of Job;

Rejoice, thou who reproved errors, with the boldness of the Great Baptist;

Rejoice, foreseer of the future with the old prophets;

Rejoice thou who fervently prayed at thine Holy Places;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 5:

At the instruction of Holy Patriarch Damianos from thine Holy Church of Jerusalem, thou were accepted in the covenant of Saint Sava, singing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 5:

Thy struggles in the monastic obedience were many, O pious father, but with the help of Thee, Whom you dearly held in thy heart, thou didst carry everything with love, for which we sing to thee:

Rejoice, O pious Father John;

Rejoice, follower of Saint Sava in virtues;

Rejoice, thou who resembled Anthony in holiness;

Rejoice, thou who didst strive as the Great Arsenius;

Rejoice, that all the badly sick fathers were seeking for thy help;

Rejoice, with the Great Sisoes in deeds;

Rejoice, consolation of the Christian’s pilgrims seeking for thee;

Rejoice, that for thy great charity

“Physician of the monastery” all called thee;

Rejoice, that through the miracle of thine Holy Mother, thou were saved from the Bedouins’ attack;

Rejoice, thou who carrest for all as didst Christ thy Master;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 6:

Longing for the life of a hermit, O father, thou took the blessing of hieromonk Sava to depart for Kumrran desert, singing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 6:

Thy stay in Kumrran wast short, O Father, when the Bedouins rushed in with their cattle so thou had to depart for the cave of Kalomana in the Valley of Jordan, for which thee hear from us:

Rejoice, thou who searched for silence;

Rejoice, that from the attack of a wild beast, thou wast saved through a great miracle;

Rejoice, that departing from passions, thou didst oppose evil;

Rejoice, thou who dwelled not far from the Monastery of Saint Gherassim form Jordan;

Rejoice, for great harness thou didst endure there;

Rejoice, for having settled in Kalomonas cave, thou didst receive a disciple;

Rejoice, thou who wast consumed by the same zeal and love for Thee;

Rejoice, for in the Jordan Valley, thou sang praises;

Rejoice, thou who wast struck by a serious illness of the stomach;

Rejoice, for despite of thy illness, thou carried out the monastic law and the cannons;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 7:

This illness hast tormented thee for one-half year, O Father, and thee grew even weaker to a total exhaustion, but with joyful heart thou sang to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 7:

When the war burst in the Holy Land, thou wert put in the concentration camp with the Italians and the Germans for almost a year, for which hear from us these:

Rejoice, for these temptations didn’t frighten thee;

Rejoice, thou who didst endure all for Christ’s love;

Rejoice, for in the storms of life, thou grew stronger;

Rejoice, that in troubles and pain, thou hast run to God for help;

Rejoice, that weakened by the stomach pain, thy only hope was from Above;

Rejoice, that from the camp thou wast saved by the power of Jesus;

Rejoice, for once again, thou wast received in the Lavra of Saint Savas;

Rejoice, for thou wert ordered to the same obedience;

Rejoice, for thou went to the Monastery of Saint Theodosius;

Rejoice, thou who wast healed from Above’

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 8:

Having being deemed worthy to be received into the holy order of the deaconate and then the priesthood at our Lord Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, thou wast longing to go to the desert, singing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 8:

So great was thy joy when thou arrived at a quiet place, having becoming the Abbot of the Romanian Skete in Jordan, thou prayed for thy native country and for all thine people, for which hear from us these:

Rejoice, thou who served with great zeal at the Skete in Jordan;

Rejoice, for great were thy battles;

Rejoice, that for 5 years thou hast served at this Romanian Skete;

Rejoice, that from there thou hast travelled to the Hazeva Desert;

Rejoice, O father much longing for the desert;

Rejoice, for in the Monastery of Saint George from Hazeva, thou hast served for a year;

Rejoice, thou who didst seek for a complete silence;

Rejoice, for in the sweat of reclusory, thou put out the coals of thy passions;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 9:

Through God’s grace and the care of thine Pure Mother, thou arrived at a place of quietness and total collectedness in the cave where Saint Anna hast lived the life of a recluse, singing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 9:

Burnt by the desire to live the rest of the days in that blessed place, thou hast strived in great labors, for which hear from us these:

Rejoice, seer of God;

Rejoice, dwelling of heavenly light;

Rejoice, for been crucified to the world, thou offered thyself as a sacrifice to Thee;

Rejoice, model of salvation of the country Above;

Rejoice, firm ground of the hesychasts;

Rejoice, rare flower of the Jordan Valley,

Rejoice, great hermit and instructor of the monks;

Rejoice, elect guardian of chastity;

Rejoice, fervent servant of thine Most Pure Mother;

Rejoice, for been enlightened form Above, thou hast accepted the priesthood;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 10:

Having been difficult for many to reach that secluded place, thou didst receive at thy cave only those souls genuinely seeking salvation, urging them to unceaselessly sing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 10:

Thou hast instructed all thy spiritual children to remember death, the Day of Judgment and the Holy Sacrifice of our Merciful Christ, for which we sing to thee:

Rejoice, father John pious thinker;

Rejoice, with Basil the Great teacher of the remembrance of death;

Rejoice, skillful instructor with John the Golden Mouth;

Rejoice, server of Liturgy with Saint Gregory;

Rejoice, O Father dwelling with thine angels;

Rejoice, bearer of Christ;

Rejoice, ardent guardian of the monastic promise;

Rejoice, dearest keeper of the Holy Cannons;

Rejoice, with Holy Nicodim defender of the Orthodox Faith;

Rejoice, preserver with great zeal of the Tradition of the Holy Fathers;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 11:

Seeing thy angelic life in the Cave of Saint Anna, it is proper for us to strive for a sinless life, asking Christ for a new beginning and to sing to Thee: Alleluia!

Ekos 11:

Great comfort has found all those wondering to the Holy places, thy Cave and the Romanian Skete from Jordan, O pious Father, for which you hear from us these:

Rejoice, precious treasure of the One Christian Church;

Rejoice, ardent intercessor for your kinsmen;

Rejoice, chosen jewel of the pious priests;

Rejoice, strength and help for the meek;

Rejoice, for a great heavenly vision wast revealed to thee before departing this life;

Rejoice, thou who wast rise to great heights for thy striving;

Rejoice, oil with sweet fragrance of Heavenly Grace;

Rejoice, one longing for the remembrance of thy kinsmen;

Rejoice, our protector before the Righteous Judge;

Rejoice, heavenly pearl and skylight of the Romanian nation;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 12:

Thy departure from this transient life was wondrous O father, when all thine saints whom thee honored and composed hymnody  were awaiting thy soul to accompanying it into thine Heavenly Bliss, all crying with joy: Alleluia!

Ekos 12:

All pious Orthodox Christians rejoicing at thy holiness of life, O Pious Father John, and marveling at thy Holy Relics, they sing to thee:

Rejoice, angel in the body now rejoicing with them;

Rejoice, dweller with thine Saints,

Rejoice, intercessor with thine Apostles and Martyrs;

Rejoice, with the Righteous and Pious who left this life;

Rejoice, protector in times of danger;

Rejoice, shining star of the clergy;

Rejoice, for spiritual food thou left to us in thy writings;

Rejoice, comforter of the hopeless and despaired;

Rejoice, thou who hast work wonders though thy holy relics;

Rejoice, for venerating them, thou fillest our souls with endless yearnings;

Rejoice, O pious Father John the New from Hazeva!

Kontakion 13:

O Pious Father John pleasing Thee, receive from us this pious hymn and ardently pray to Allmerciful God for thy nation and all Orthodox faithful that we may be delivered from all snares, disgust, dangers and despair, and at the end of our lives intercede for us before thine Heavenly Throne, O father, so together with thee we may sing the angelic praise: Alleluia!

(This kotakion is read three times, then follow with the first ekos and the first kotakion).

A Prayer to Saint John Jacob the Romanian (to follow…)