Elder Cleopa's Wilderness Liturgy

During the time the elder was visited by the grace of God in the following way. Fr. Cleopa told his disciples that when he was building his hut, birds would come and sit on his head. The first time he served Liturgy on a stump in front of his hut, as he was communing the Holy Mysteries, a flock of birds came and gathered, such as he had never seen before.  As he gazed upon them in astonishment, he noticed that each one had the sign of the Cross marked on its forehead.

Another time, after the preparation for Liturgy and having read all the prayers, he set the Antimension on the tree stump and began the Liturgy with the exclamation, 'Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages!' Again the birds appeared, and as they perched in the branch of the tree they began to sing in beautiful and harmonic voices. Fr. Cleopa asked himself, 'What could this be?' And an unseen voice whispered to him, 'These are your chanters on the cliros.' These signs and others encouraged the Elder immensely during his time of exile. 

From The Truth of Our Faith: Volume 1 by Elder Cleopa, pg. 20-21 (Uncut Mountain Press)

I should mention that I have been to Romania and have visited Sihastria Monastery where the Elder is buried.  Speaking with an elderly woman who had met the Elder (through a translator), she revealed that Elder Cleopa, like St. Seraphim of Sarov, had befriended a bear out in the wilderness. Every day, Elder Cleopa would find two potatoes: he would eat one himself (probably his only nourishment for the day) and give the other to the bear.



We see this in the Lives of many Saints: the holiness they reach is recognized by all of creation, so much so that they return to the state of Adam before the Fall in which all of creation lived in true communion.  This, by the way, is true environmentalism: to achieve the Grace of God to such an extent that even the wild beasts recognize and respond to it.  Holiness cures all ills!