Our Venerable Father Cyriacus, the Hermit of Tazlau
Life
Cyriacus of Tazlau (Romanian: Cuviosul Chiriac de la Tazlau) was a seventeenth-century monk and hermit of Moldavia, associated with the Tazlau Monastery in present-day Romania. Born into a peasant family in the village of Mesteacan (also rendered Mastacan, today within the commune of Borlesti), he entered the Tazlau Monastery as a young man while Dositheos served as its igumen.
Within the community he was noted for humility, prayer, and ascetic discipline, and was eventually ordained to the priesthood. Seeking a more rigorous solitude, he withdrew to a cave on the mountain called Magura Tazlaului near the monastery, where tradition holds that he lived as a hermit for some fifty years, sustaining himself on dried bread and forest fruits and keeping all-night vigils. He is remembered as a teacher of stillness (hesychia) whose disciples settled in the surrounding mountains of Tazlau, Nichitu, and Tarcau. He reposed around 1660 and is commemorated on September 9 and December 31.
Contributions & Legacy
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Monastic and Eremitic Life
Sources record that as a child Cyriacus was taken by his parents to services at the Tazlau Monastery, and that he entered the monastic community in his youth after receiving their blessing. He surpassed his fellow monks in humility and prayer and, though by tradition he had not sought the office, was ordained to the priesthood and served as a guide and confessor to others.
Desiring greater asceticism, he retreated to a cave on Mount Magura near the monastery, where accounts describe night-long vigils, severe fasting, continual prayer, and the endurance of cold and temptation. The Orthodox Church in America's synaxarion states that he lived in this place for fifty years.
Relics & Shrines
According to tradition Cyriacus was buried in the vestibule (narthex) of the monastery church, with later accounts reporting that his body was found incorrupt when exhumed. His relics were associated with reported miracles of healing. During the dangers that threatened Moldavia at the end of the seventeenth century, when many took refuge in the forests, the relics are said to have been divided among the faithful so that they would not be desecrated; portions were preserved in a cave on Magura Tazlaului. The site remains a place of pilgrimage.
Veneration
Cyriacus is commemorated on September 9 and December 31. Romanian sources note that his veneration arose through popular piety rather than a documented formal process during his own era; he appears in the 1888 Paterikon of Moldavian-Romanian saints under December 31.
His companions & kin
The Moldavian monastery where Cyriacus was tonsured and near which he kept his hermitage.
