A figure of overwhelming spiritual stature, yet, surprisingly enough, beneath the guise of a founder and all-round entrepreneur and builder endowed with architectural and engineering virtues, he was also a demanding and prudent steward of the monastery’s assets, which he strove, as a scholar of law, to increase and make them useful and, inevitably, profitable – let us not be alarmed by this emphasis – Saint Calinic, Bishop of Cernica and Râmnic, a vibrant presence in the life of the country’s capital city, active and critical of the state of the political world of his Romanian era and beyond, but above all of the National Assembly, which he honoured as a senator by right, made his mark and won over—sometimes prevailing fiercely through his militancy—the the Romanian Christian world of the nineteenth century, as well as that of the twentieth, to the point where, in our own day, he has been recognised and declared a Saint in the Orthodox calendar.
Thus, his canonisation led to the recognition of this hierarch—a builder of souls and places of worship—as a man wholly of the Christian world, living the vibrant life of the faithful and alongside them, whilst at the same time his life into a monastic canon in the fullest sense of the word. His private, priestly life was exemplary in its humility and in the sacrificial submission of his entire being to the monastic canons.
This harmonious duality of his personality has also inspired me in my study of the Saint who emerged from the turmoil of the city—a noble and revealing fact regarding the power of his faith and the vastness of his inner turmoil and his philosophy of life.
And if my strength permits, this will also be the shape of my bold project, dictated – to use the right word – by the obedience to which I was persuaded by Dr Varsanufie, the present Archbishop of Râmnic, my great friend in my twilight years, who urged me to write a heartfelt book dedicated to the holy man of Cernica.
These lines, as well as those that preceded them, published in issues 1 and 2 of the admirable Martyria, are nothing but fleeting references to the duality of the ascetic’s life, lived amidst the bustle and clamour of the city and the world day in, day out.
Thus, this is why I bring to the attention today of those who are still somewhat unfamiliar with the personality of Saint Calinic, but especially to the eyes and minds of the wider public, these young people, a Prayer – a written testament, as we are told by the biographers of Hierarch Calinic, the most distinguished of whom, for they were also the closest to him during his life and ministry, Archimandrite Diomid, former abbot of Cernica Monastery, and Protosinghel Anastasie Baldovin, who discovered, written in the Saint’s own hand, on scattered pages left behind by him, this Testament – a prayer invoking forgiveness for a sin which Saint Calinic calls – astonishingly and biblically at the same time – the sin of knowledge.
I therefore invite you today to read and reflect on this Prayer – testament and on the verse which I transcribe in capital letters, its reference being a poignant allusion to the biblical sin, I thought to myself – the sin of knowing good and evil from within – in other words, of a whole life, lived to the full. Perhaps!?
‘To the Most Venerable Fathers,
Archimandrite Diomid, former abbot of Cernica Monastery,
and Protosingel Anastasie Baldovin.As a few fragments of the writings of the late His Grace Calinic, Bishop of Rîmnic and Noul-Severin, written in his own hand, have been preserved, we are publishing them in his memory. They bear witness to his ascetic life, his concern for drawing others to this way of life, and, finally, his character as a merciful man.
Lamentation of the humble Calinic, Hieromonk and Abbot of Cernica:
I know that my beginning has an end, yet I live as though there were no end.
Though my mind is lifted in contemplation, my life draws ever nearer to its end.
Day and night, pondering vain things; and I have drawn near to death.
The more I see death drawing near to me,
the more I strive to banish it from my thoughts.
Yet if it is not possible to escape death through action,
I strive to escape it through thought.
(Oh, woe is me, how hardened I have become).Every day, whilst my brothers spend their time at the grave and do nothing, I have not humbled myself,
Nor with a sighing heart, nor do I cast my eyes to the ground,
To look into the grave, to see my likeness shining.
In bones strewn about, full of stench and gnawed by worms.
O, do not cry out to me as the grave falls upon me:
‘Here too shall you dwell tomorrow.’
O Abbot, turn your mind away from the world, at least for today.
Lest death should come upon you unawares.
For all who loved it in this world,
They sent them empty to the grave.
Laughing and mocking those who amassed their wealth here;
Yet they did not grow rich in God;
But have inherited eternal torment in the endless depths of TartarusAlas, alas, for my wretchedness—how can I not feel
it, To weep unceasingly for my eternal damnation.
Come, wretched soul of mine,
Let us fall down in lamentation before God, praying also to my most pure Virgin, my good Intercessor
, That she may move her Son, Jesus Christ our God, to have mercy on me and deliver me from the endless fire, for I have sinned knowingly.All you saints, pray for me, for I have deprived myself of your communion
; may I at least from now on live in repentance,
and depart this life in faith,
so that I may attain eternal rest. Amen.1 August 1822 (signed later)
Calinic Rîmnic Noul-Severin”