01 — Foundations

The orphan of Crăiniceni and the road to the monastery: Ilie Iacob’s birth in 1913, the early loss of both parents, his upbringing by his grandmother Maria, his schooling, his military service as a medic, and his entry into Neamț Monastery and tonsure as the monk Ioan in 1936.

Tradition: Romanian Orthodox (20th-c. hermit of the Judean desert; glorified 1992)

This section establishes the human beginning of St. John Jacob: a child of the northern Moldavian countryside, orphaned young, formed by a pious grandmother and by a bookish, retiring temperament, who found his way through school and a stint of army medical service to the great Philokalic monastery of Neamț.

Navigation

File	Description
ilie-iacob-of-crainiceni.md	Birth at Crăiniceni in 1913; the death of his parents; his grandmother Maria; his schooling and youth
the-call-to-neamt.md	Military service as a medic; entry into Neamț Monastery; the tonsure as Ioan in 1936

See Also

• 02 — The Holy Land — the pilgrimage that followed hard upon his tonsure
• St. Paisius Velichkovsky — the renewer of the Neamț he entered