Cu darul lui Dumnezeu și prin bunăvoința Părintelui Stareț Melchisedec al Mănăstirii Putna, mănăstirea noastră s-a împodobit cu o părticică din sfintele moaște ale Sfântului Iacob Putneanul. Așadar, prezentăm în continuare crâmpeie din viața și moștenirea duhovnicească a acestui mare sfânt.
Viața Sfântului
Illumining the people through education. The great Metropolitan wholeheartedly desired that the people follow in Christ’s footsteps. Christ was Saint Jacob’s life and he wanted to grant this Life to the faithful. Therefore, he labored tirelessly so that the people’s souls could be illumined through education, to have access to education that would elevate them to holiness and eternity.
The written word is one method of learning God’s word and growing spiritually. Having rejoiced in the spiritual and intellectual nourishment he obtained from books he read at Putna, he wanted this nourishment to reach other ascetics and as many Christians as possible, unto their illumination and salvation. For this, he comissioned translation and publications of many books.
First of all, he published many books necessary for conducting church services. These were translated into the Romanian language, so that the priests could serve in the language understood by the people.
In Moldavia, the Romanian language began being used in the Church starting in the end of the 17th century. This development was mainly attributed to the Holy Metropolitan Dosoftei. After him, the effort of translating service books stagnated. Saint Jacob of Putna resumed the translation and publication both of service books, as well as of the writings of the Church Fathers and theologians, which are useful for learning the intricacies of spiritual warfare. To understand how much Saint Jacob increased the number of profitable books, we note that between 1700 and 1750, there were 66 books published in Wallachia and only 10 in Moldavia, but between 1750 and 1760, Saint Jacob published 15 books in Moldavia.
Saint Jacob played an instrumental role in improving education in schools. To fill the need for instructional books for children, in 1755 Saint Jacob published the first school primer in Moldavia, Bucvarul. In its preface, Saint Jacob writes how important the education of children is, and how necessary books for children are: “How can you hope for good things wherever the children do not have good nourishment? And who does not see how much that nourishment is lacking in this country?”
At Saint Jacob’s proposal, through the princely decree of Teodor Callimachi dated on June 25, 1759, the first rural school in Moldavia was founded for the children of Putna village. In the first decades of its operation, Saint Jacob entrusts the obedience of teaching the children and managing the school to Archimandrite Vartolomei Mazereanu and to other monks. Monks from Putna taught at the school until the mid-19th century, after which they were replaced by laypeople. The school has operated with no interruptions until the present day.
Saint Jacob did not show his care for children’s education only by publishing the school primer and founding the village school, but also by continually encouraging the faithful to value education. Without education, the soul withers away, as he wrote: “Education resembles fragrant flowers, while lack of education resembles a withered-up tree.”
His zeal for education derives from the understanding he had about the goal of education. Saint Jacob understood that the world and its beauty are God’s gifts for mankind. And man, through the beauty and rationale of visible things, is called to understand the beauty and reality of invisible things.
Education opens our eyes to understand the nature of this world, to understand the role and proper usage of each thing., the role of each person and the proper relationship among people. By knowing God’s work, man learns about Him and His love for man, for whom He created all things. And thus, by contemplating visible things according to God’s will, man becomes lifted up to invisible, spiritual realities. Therefore, for Saint Jacob, education is a path leading to eternal life.
As a result, as a spiritual father and hierarch who was responsible for education in the nation, he sought to form children of the Heavenly Kingdom through education. With this goal in mind, Saint Jacob and his collaborators made great, prolonged efforts and they inscribed page after page in the history of education and Romanian culture.
Saint Jacob desired to present the saints as models of perfection. For this reason, he commissioned the translation of the Lives of the Saints, which are true manuals in which anyone, regardless of age and background, may find a role model. At his behest, 6 of the 12 volumes of the Lives of the Saints were translated, albeit not published – for the months of September, October, November, March, April, and May. Unfortunately, not only these, but also other books for which he commissioned translations, remained in manuscript form after his resignation from the metropolitan throne. (to be continued)
I felt Saint Jacob of Putna as a humble and permanent presence
Razvan became ill with cancer in Sofia, while studying abroad. He found out that his best friend committed suicide, and since he was greatly pained by the tragedy, a lymphatic cancer was triggered.
How did you come to know Saint Jacob?
In 2017, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. This is the official name for lymphatic cancer, which had metastasized to my lungs, bones, and thymus very quickly. The doctors were very skeptical that I would get better. Even a friend of mine, who is a doctor at the Military Hospital and who helped me, told me that I have at most two months to live. According to human wisdom.
At the beginning, they didn’t tell me my prognosis. The hospital doctors tried to prevent me from learning that I’m in the final stage, and they were telling me that I’m in the initial stages, but my attending physician eventually told me: “I think you know what stage you’re in, you know you’re in stage 4.” That was a real shock for me. It was the last stage, metastasis. And then, I started crying. I cried for a few minutes and felt that everything—my whole future, the world, my plans, my hopes—was destroyed. How should I solve this? I have to do something. I started calling priests and no one answered the phone, because I wanted someone to give me Communion. Finally, I spoke to the abbot of Radu Vodă, who sent me a priest. From the moment I received Communion, I had absolutely no more fear. I became hopeful.
In that year, on May 9, when we celebrate the translation of the relics of Saint Nicholas to Bari, I started chemotherapy, and when the canonization of Saint Jacob of Putna happened, I watched it on TV. I didn’t know much about Saint Jacob, just some historical facts, but nothing about his sainthood. But on the day of his canonization, when his troparion was sung, I felt a special sensation. I was watching from home. I had bone metastases, with terrible pains whenever I moved, let alone when I went to the restroom. And lying in bed and watching the canonization ceremony, when the saint’s troparion was sung, I felt that special sensation, which irradiated from my heart throughout my whole body. A remarkable joy which I cannot express in words. It’s something extremely personal.
Having had this sensation, whenever I began a session of chemotherapy, I sang in my mind the troparion to the Mother of God Pantanassa, followed by the one to Saint Jacob of Putna, and I felt as if I had been entangled in a net and someone came to free me from that net. And that’s why I say that I always felt Saint Jacob as a humble and permanent presence, by my side. And I felt the exact same thing one year after I recovered. But I continued praying even after everything was over, after I recovered.
How long did you do chemotheraphy?
Almost one year, 24 sessions, and then I did 15 sessions of radiation treatment, which I finished in March of 2018.
In August, I spoke with some friends from the Czech Republic and I brought them to Putna. When I entered the door of the main church, I didn’t know that Saint Jacob had been buried there on the left side. So, when I entered into the porch, exactly where Saint Jacob’s tomb is, I felt that same exact sensation and presence. And then I turned to my left and saw the saint’s icon. I had already burst into tears and I tried to hide somewhere. I didn’t want it to seem weird, because I was with my Czech friends who were not Orthodox. But I was caught off guard, I was surprised. And then, when I entered the chapel, there was the exact same presence, the same spirit, as I had felt at home when I first heard his troparion.
After the episode at home with the troparion, were there other extraordinary moments?
Yes, for sure. I would start chemotherapy. I was lying in bed. The nurse would come to administer the chemotherapy substance. And every time, I would make the sign of the Cross, then I would sing mentally to the Mother of God and to Saint Jacob. And I had a freeing sensation, which was so pacifying. And I confess that I didn’t feel sick. The doctors marveled because I was taking seven types of chemicals, for a total of 3.5 liters of chemotherapy substance. The attending physician marveled and told my mother that: “I’m not at peace with this treatment, but I don’t have anything else to administer him; if we don’t try this, he’ll die for sure.” And he marveled because he expected me to have various states of extreme nausea. But I had nothing of the sort. Only once did I have a fever of 104 degrees. But, in general, I didn’t feel sick. Everyone marveled.
God saved me, through Saint Jacob, and I am thankful to the saint and have great reverence for him. For me, the saint’s day of commemoration is like Pascha.
How do you feel Saint Jacob now?
Just as always. It’s the exact same presence—wonderful, mystical, humble. It’s a sensation of relaxation, of tranquility. I feel rested. I think he is a miracle-working saint of our times, whom God revealed and granted to us for our benefit.
Română 
English