The Hermit Anthony the Silent (I)

The life of the hermit Anthony († April 27, 2018) from the Cozia Mountains remains a mystery. Few things have reached us about him, from which we can nevertheless record a part of his life, and only that which was visible. The rest is deep silence. The vow of silence he kept from his youth sealed his way of life, to remain hidden from our eyes. He called himself “Antonie the Hunchback” when he signed warnings on sheets of paper for those who ventured towards the cave where he practiced asceticism, but we could just as well call him “Antonie the Unknown” or “the Silent”, “Antonie Spileotul” (“the one from the cave”) or “the Hesychast,” because he lived his years of long asceticism in prayer, in caves without fire, in complete silence, feeding only on seeds. Others might call him “Antonie the Eccentric” or “the Fool for Christ.” In truth, however, he was a monk who lived a hesychastic life.

We don't have a lot of information about Father Anthony, the hermit who practiced asceticism in Mount Basarab near Cozia Monastery around the years 1995-2015, and then, for another three years, in a cave in the Apuseni Mountains. However, for now, being among the few who had the chance to know him during his short life, I found it appropriate not to let the few things known about him remain unknown forever, without the benefit that readers could gain. And so, in what follows, we try to make a humble remembrance of him.

The life of this authentic hermit of our days can assure us that the strict practices of ancient eremitic life have not entirely disappeared, and therefore we should continue to hope that God still has His people hidden in the cracks of the earth, who unceasingly pray for the grieving people, in tribulation, and for the whole world, troubled by all kinds of distractions. Father Anthony's life is proof that there are still pious souls hidden from the world, hidden in God, who strive to gather all the fruits of the desert, of hesychia, and who call to repentance, silently preaching the path from death to life.

I met him personally at the end of March 2017, in his cave in the Apuseni Mountains. He lived there known only by a few Christians, who came at the beginning of spring to visit him, after five months of complete isolation. The few things I learned about his life he wrote down for me on paper, in a dialogue where I asked questions and he answered in writing, during the few meetings I had with him.

“That saying is not good, Alexandre…”

Alexandru, by his baptismal name, was born on February 19, 1968, we presume in Bucharest. At the age of 10, he disappeared from home for the first time, fleeing somewhere, to an Army ground:

“I was running, I was running, I don't know why I was running.”

“And what did you feed on?”

“With whatever was found on the ground, in hollows. My family kept me chained, so I wouldn't run away. But instinct led me. They said they saw something at my baptism. I asked the priest, and he told me that at the right age I would see what. But later, a clear vision came of what to do. I saw myself on a train. I was traveling with a man. Thus, at 27, I embarked on the monastic path.”

“And who was that man, Father?”

Antonie looked up and, smiling mischievously, pointed his finger upwards.

In 1988, he completed his military service and, helped by his father, entered the NCO school at Antitero; thus, the Revolution found him a sergeant at an armaments depot near Turceni. During the events of December '89, he remained to guard the depot, thereby avoiding being sent to Bucharest, where he could have been shot. After finishing the army, he got a job in Bucharest at the PICON Institute, which specialized in elevator construction. Here he was a neighbor of Antim Monastery, and thus, in 1990, he met Saint Father Sofian Boghiu, who became his spiritual father.

Father Sofian was a discreet, silent man, but Brother Alexandru talked, he talked quite a lot, and that bothered him. He confessed, and the Father tried to help him with this passion, but one day, when he was talking a lot and senselessly, Father Sofian told him: “This talk is not good, Alexandre... Try to speak less.” And then he sat and thought to himself about what Father Sofian had told him, and the next day, when he went to his confessor, he himself asked for a blessing not to speak anymore. Then Father Sofian, very calmly, gave him this blessing to be silent. So he took the vow of silence not because the Father had imposed it on him, but because Antonie himself desired it.

From another testimony, we learned that there could have been another reason: the fact that he spoke about high experiences and spiritual measures, which endangered him both spiritually and because such "mystical" things could have disturbed the Securitate – still alive in people's consciousness even after 1990. I would rather lean towards the reason of spiritual endangerment, which means that this canon of silence was for him also a form of safeguarding some experiences he had already had. The precise answer to this question will likely remain a mystery.

“Antonie of the Bushes”

The story of his life continues in his own words, written on pages:

“From there, from the PICON Institute, I landed at «Băneasa Airplanes». Here, at aviation, we had the former Apicultural Combine next to us. We gave them metal sheets, they gave us honey, like that, over the fence. Ceaușescu didn't know. And from there, from the airplanes, I took the «plane» to the mountains, in Argeș County, because Father Sofian sent me to Dâmbovicioara, in Ciocanu village. He had bought a house there, with 1,800 m2 [of land], to build a skete. It was like a pit, far from the village. Only the forester was still living there, but not close by. But the locals didn't understand my canon of silence, and I had to leave there for Slănic”.

So in 1994, we find him as a schema-monk at Slănic Monastery in Argeș County, as noted on one of the pages of his Paterikon his own. Then I understood that he tried to find a place for ascetic solitude, thus reaching Ticera, in the Apuseni Mountains, and even Mount Athos. Here he would go at night and steal figs from the Fathers, jumping over the fence into their gardens, and the next day, when he went to them to ask for more, they would reply: “Ohi figs!” [No figs!]. They had nicknamed him: “Antonie of the Bushes”.

Eventually, he settled in a small cave on Basarab Mountain, close to the old Cozia Monastery, about a three-hour walk through the forest. According to the information we gathered, we believe he lived here for almost twenty years, from around 1995 until about 2014-2015, when some events (which brought him into the public eye) forced him to find another place of retreat. With the help of some Christians, he managed to stay for another three years in a hidden cave, far from places where people passed, somewhere in the Apuseni Mountains.

In the spring of 2017, when the Christians who knew about him visited him after the snow melted, when the weather conditions allowed them, the Father's health was extremely precarious. It had been very cold, and the water he had had frozen, and for several days, he had been without water. So he agreed to be brought to Bucharest for a while, for recovery. He stayed in the capital for about a year, known only to a few, in a basement of a house in Bucharest, closely served by a good friend of mine. Here I got to know him better and had the great joy of talking with him during several meetings.

In short, Father Antonie's ascetic struggle for over twenty years was characterized by the vow of complete silence, a diet of seeds and dried fruits, and solitary dwelling in a cave. In recent years, he had also decided to avoid any sight of women...

(to be continued)

Mircea Stanciu

From "Familia Ortodoxă" (The Orthodox Family), April 2019

Read also:

Hermit Antonie the Silent (II)

Hermit Anthony the Silent (III)

Hermit Anthony the Silent (IV)