“Let us seek simplicity and strive to acquire prayer, so that in times of trial we may be able to fight,” says Nun Nectaria Lazăr of Pasărea Monastery in Ilfov County, the biological sister of Saint Elizabeth of Pasărea, in a feature report for the newspaper of the Romanian Patriarchate.
The nun recalled her childhood in a village in Suceava County alongside her sister, a contemporary saint recently canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church, and spoke about her own spiritual journey.
Saint Elizabeth and her sister, Mother Nectaria, were born into a large family with ten children in the commune of Moldova-Sulița, Suceava County.
Daughters of a Large Family
“From an early age, we had a very beautiful upbringing thanks to our grandmother Evdochia, who was extremely strict in matters of holiness, yet at the same time she was our joy, because she always took us to church with her and we even participated in cleaning the church,” the nun recalls.
“At home, there was harmony among us. Although we were a poorer family, we had what we needed, glory to God!”
A Humble and Quiet Child
The future saint, baptised Rodica, showed a spiritual inclination from childhood.
“Whenever it was her turn to go milk the cows on our pasture, which was about three kilometres from home, she would always take the Horologion with her. The pasture was on a mountain peak, and she would climb up and read from it. At one point, she heard a voice telling her to go to a monastery. Later, she asked us to build a wayside cross at that place, and we did,” Mother Nectaria recounted.
“She was very humble, quiet and withdrawn at school among the other children. At the same time, she was very gentle and attentive to others, always ready to help, with a particular delicacy toward her neighbour. Even I, as her sister, sensed from her behaviour that there was a certain boundary — I had a special respect for her and could not behave with her as I did with our other sisters.”
Guided by St. John Jacob of Neamț
Venerable Elizabeth later called her sister to Jerusalem. In the Garden of Gethsemane, she told her about her mystical experience during a grave illness, when she journeyed through Heaven and Hell.
“She was guided by Saint John Jacob of Neamț. When she reached the gates of a very beautiful city with the saint, she heard a voice telling her she was not yet worthy to enter, that she was not prepared and had to return to earth,” the nun said.
When she awoke, she had been healed of her severe illness, to the astonishment of the nuns who had been caring for her and who knew even the wound she had on her abdomen.
A Life of Hermitage
“She always told us how terrible hell is and how we must struggle to gain Heaven, which requires much effort, much love and much prayer,” her sister emphasised.
After her miraculous healing in Jerusalem, Venerable Elizabeth returned to Romania and, following a hidden urging from Saint John Jacob the New Chozebite, withdrew to the mountains, where Mother Nectaria would sometimes visit her.
“What she taught me still helps me today — how to pray, how to behave, how not to neglect prayer. She used to say that the greatest deception of our times is postponing prayer,” Mother Nectaria recalls.
Today, sister Nectaria Lazăr lives at Pasărea Monastery in the former cell of Saint Venerable Elizabeth, together with Anastasia, a niece who has also chosen the monastic path and is a recent graduate of the monastic seminary at Pasărea Monastery.
Photo: Basilica.ro Files / Raluca Ene
