He was born in 1730 in a pious Orthodox family in Săliște, Sibiu. From his youth, he aspired to monastic life. At the age of 19, he went to Wallachia and began serving the Greek Metropolitan Rosca in Bucharest. In 1750, he traveled with his spiritual father to Constantinople, and then to the Holy Mountain Athos, where he was tonsured into the rassophore and ordained as a deacon. In 1752, he became a disciple of St. Paisius Velichkovsky and was ordained as a hieromonk in 1754.
In 1763, following the elder to Moldavia, he served as a hieromonk and spiritual father at the Dragomirna Monastery. In 1775, after Bukovina was subjected to the Roman Catholic Austria, he, along with the brotherhood, moved to the Secu Monastery, and in 1779 to the Neamț Monastery.
In 1781, with the blessing of the elder, he set out for Athos but was stopped by the Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia Gregory II and Hieromonk Macarius. He agreed to revive monastic life in the Chernika Skete, which had been in desolation for over thirty years. With the help of the ruler Nicholas Mavrogheni, he began the restoration of the cathedral and cells, paying attention to the spiritual life of the inhabitants.
In 1785, he fell seriously ill and composed a will regarding the order of life for the monastic community, but soon recovered and continued his pastoral work. In 1793, considering the successes in Chernika, Metropolitan Philaret II entrusted him with the Căldărușani Monastery. From April 1794, he lived in both monasteries, introducing the Athonite rule.
He managed the monasteries until the end of his life. He reposed on December 3, 1806, and was buried in the Chernika Monastery. After his death, he was venerated as a shepherd of high spiritual life and a renewer of monasticism according to Athonite examples. He had many disciples, and his will spread in numerous copies.
On October 20-21, 2005, he was glorified in the ranks of the venerable. The canonization service took place on December 3 in the Chernika Monastery, led by the Romanian Patriarch Teoctist.
His name was included in the calendar of the Russian Church on August 21, 2007.
