Saint Basil of Poiana Mărului. Biographic milestones
Saint Basil of Poiana Mărului. Biographic milestones

Summary/Abstract: While, in the 19th century, many servants of the monastic settlements leftWallachia and Moldova, because of the measures taken there, the situation wasnevertheless different in the 18th century, when monks from different areasinhabited by Orthodox Christians came to the Romanian Countries, where theyencountered an uninterrupted reality of hesychastic renewal started by SaintGregory of Sinai (1255-1346), due to the fact that the Romanians had knownanother cultural continuity, different from what had happened, until that century,in the Greek Byzantine or in the Slav world. This reality explains why therevitalization of the hesychastic and spiritual life in the areas north of the Danubeis related, in the 18th century, to the Saints Basil of Poiana Mărului (1692-1767)and Paisius Velichkovsky or Wieliczkowski of Neamţ (1722-1794), both of themarrived from the Slav world in the Romanian extra-Carpathian territories. SaintBasil founded many hermitages and trained many disciples in the practice of theprayer of the mind or of the heart, becoming known as a great teacher of thisprayer, in the modern times. Just as the Holy Fathers of Mount Sinai (Gregory,Philotheos, Hesychios), but also from other parts of the Byzantine world (SaintSymeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas etc.), once again, he drawsthe attention not just of the monks but also of the lay people on the prayer of theheart, so that in the 19th century it was not the teaching of Saint Paisius on thepractice of the prayer of the heart that prevailed, but the teaching of Saint Basil,followed especially in the Romanian and in the Russian tradition. Regarding themonastic life, the activity of Starets Basil can be characterized by the ecumenicityof the Orthodox faith, due to the fact that, on the one hand, he brought togethermonks from the Romanian and the Slav area, and, on the other hand, hecontributed to the enrichment of the Romanian monasticism through thecultivation of the spirit of two Holy Mounts, Athos and Sinai.

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