I was reading this thread over. All afresh, I feel bad for Icxypion, with that story he told just a few posts ago.
Where is he, by the way ? We miss his presence here.
I returned to this thread out of gratitude that I had been steered correctly about the elder Cleopa of Romania.
Thus, when I finally gritted my teeth and decided to have a look at that same book I mentioned 2 years ago,
I found myself rather indifferent at best. The stories about him may be powerful for Romanians.
For me, though, comparing the Optina Elders, whose biographies I love to read and reread, with him, I felt uncomfortable
with this 'elder'.
Now I wanted to find out exactly what was imparted to me about him before and I see that he was a New Calendarist.
Worse, he viewed Old Calendarists as schismatics.
This is one of the wonderful features of the Euphrosynos Cafe. One can look up a name immediately and get the facts about
that person or about any subject which has been examined here by the knowledgeable readers.
Now maybe we need to break off a thread for elder Cleopa by himself.
I would be curious to hear if anyone has learned anything new during the interim about him ?
My feeling was so negative that I didn't read much of the book and put it aside to give away somewhere.
It's clear elder Cleopa was an ascetic.
But what bothered me partly was the fact that the author makes a big deal over the fact that pilgrims would see the elder and receive different advice for the same question.
Fine, I thought. Let's see examples.
But the one given disappointed. The elder told 3/4 of his questioners the same exact thing : "Go to a doctor and find out exactly what is the problem with you".
Not very profound advice. Nor spiritual in the slightest ! Surely the village leader could have told the pilgrims as much ?
Why was elder Cleopa sanctioning Western medicine as seemingly the only solution ?
Besides not imagining an elder depending on a doctor particularly, the reader expects Cleopa to heal by his prayers the vast majority of his petitioners the way that St John Maximovitch did.
Quite a letdown after the spectacular cures of that Saint ! Bones could nearly ALL be broken in a fall from a second story window [this was in Belgium during St John's time as Ruling Bishop of Western Europe]. Yet St John would pray over the sick patient and miraculously, he would heal !
In contrast, Cleopa seems like what was said earlier, a pseudo- elder.
Of course, maybe I am missing something.
Anybody have any input gained from studies in the interim since this was last discussed ?