In this video recording, Fr. Cleopa (Ilie) of Romania recounts his terrifying encounter with the devil in the Romanian mountains. At that time (1950s) he was was living as a hermit in the forest, being followed by the communist authorities.

Subtitles: Romanian, English
Video: December 17th, 1993. One of the guests in his cell at the time of this recording was the Romanian Metropolitan Serafim Joanta of Germany.

Fr. Cleopas:
When the devil wanted to kill me in Vadul Negrilesei [Romania, SV], he looked like a rabbi, it was night, during the Christmas fasting season… The bag was hung on a nail in a fir tree in my half-underground hut…
When I saw him it was midnight, the earth began to shake (loud noises)… “What is this? Earthquake?”
I went out and…
That underground hut was built by two craftsmen, 4 meters like this and 4 like this, 2 forks there and 2 here… They took fir branches and covered it, it was like a mountain of 2 or 3 meters tall, and after that they put soil, fir leaves and all kind of leaves… and they sowed small firs… and the door was only this tall, covered in green moss taken from the rocks, they were full of mosses… The door was only half a meter tall, I had to enter on my knees… The Holy Mysteries were inside the hut… the icon of the Holy Trinity, the Mother of God…

And when that “rabbi” came…
I was expecting to have troubles [in the wilderness]… but… The earth was shaking and when I opened the door, there was a kind of brass car as I have never seen, with thousands of small wheels… when I looked there: a “rabbi”, you know how they dress, wearing a kind of fox fur hat [see Shtreimel]. His eyes were half black, half white… it was midnight… and he said, “What are you doing here?” The earth was shaking…
I hugged the fir tree where the Holy Mysteries were and I said, “Lord Jesus, don’t leave me!”
As St. Methodios of Constantinople said that the one who has the Holy Eucharist with him, he has Christ alive, His body and blood…
And then he started to go back, there was a deep ravine there and a river from where I used to get my water… And it didn’t go back on wheels, but it overturned… Then it made such a loud noise that my ears rang till one o’clock…

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