Elder Cleopa: A short story about Heaven

"A thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night."

(Psalm 89/90:4)

There was once a monk in a monastery who wondered: "How can a thousand years pass like a day?" There is so much beauty and happiness in Heaven, that a thousand years are like a day.

The monk was the ecclesiarch of the church, and he lived a high spiritual life. He prayed to the Mother of God for several years, saying: "Mother of God, please ask Christ our Savior to show me how a thousand years can pass like a day. Because I know that these words from the Holy Spirit are true." He prayed like this for three years, and God showed him how.

As the ecclesiarch, he was in church one night after the midnight service, and he was reading the Akathist of the Mother of God. He had the keys in his hand, and his skufia was in a pew. Suddenly, an eagle flew into the church and sat on the iconostasis. This eagle was more beautiful than anybody had ever seen. Its plumage had thousands of colors, and each feather looked like a precious stone.

When the monk saw the eagle on the iconostasis, he forgot to pray and thought: "I am going to try and catch this eagle. If I catch it, I won't need any other riches! If I could only get one of its feathers!"

He tried to catch the eagle, but it flew in the middle of the church, pretending it couldn't fly very well. When the monk was ready to catch it, the eagle flew again into the narthex. The monk was praying: "Lord, help me catch it!"

Again, when the monk almost caught it, the eagle flew out of the church and stopped on a fence. When the monk ran to the fence, the eagle flew into the forest next to the monastery, then into a meadow, each time followed by the monk, who was praying: "Lord, let me catch it! If I could get at least one of its feathers!"

Finally, the eagle flew and perched on a fir tree. The monk cried out: "Lord, I wasn't worthy to get even one of its feathers!" And he kept looking at the eagle and saying: "Lord, what a beautiful bird…I have never seen such a beautiful bird!"

But all of a sudden, the eagle started to sing a song so beautiful, a song that nobody had ever heard on the face of the earth. It was an angel in the form of an eagle, but the monk did not know it. And the monk stayed there watching the eagle, which sang for the monk for 355 years.

All this time, the monk thought that only one hour had passed. He didn't grow old, he wasn't tired, hungry, or thirsty, and nobody saw him there.

When the eagle flew away, the monk realized he was holding the keys of the church in his hand, and he remembered that he forgot to lock the doors of the church, and that he also left his skufia in the church.

He returned to the monastery with the keys in his hand, but he didn't recognize the monastery. The church had a different roof, and the cells were different. He thought: "Either I went out of my mind, or this is not our monastery!" Thinking he was away for an hour or so, he went to see the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper saw an old man with a white beard and a very bright countenance, and said to the old man:

"Bless, father! What brings you here?"

"My son, I am going to lock the doors of the church."

"But where are you from?"

"From here, from our monastery."

"And where did you go?"

"Close to here, in that forest."

"Father, you are not from here."

"My son, you don't know me, but I am the ecclesiarch of the church, and I am going to lock the doors."

"Hold on, father, let me go and talk to the abbot."

The abbot had a dream the night before, where he heard a voice telling him three times: "Open the gates of the monastery so that the dove of the Lord can come in!"

The gatekeeper told the abbot: "Father, there is an old man with a bright countenance who says that he is the ecclesiarch and that he needs to lock the doors of the church." The abbot replied: "Open the gates, my son, because this is a great mystery. Take him to see me."

When the old man came to see the abbot, the abbot asked him:

"Father, do you know me?"

"No."

"But do you know the monastery?"

"I don't know it anymore. The church looks familiar, but the roof is different."

"But where did you go?"

"I went into the forest next to our monastery."

The abbot commanded the bells to be rung, and he gathered all the brotherhood in the monastery, around 300 monks. Then he brought the old man to the middle of the church so everyone could see him, and he asked the old man:

"Father, do you know anyone here?"

"I don't know anyone!"

"And do you know this old man?", the abbot asked the monks.

"We don't know him!"

The abbot then asked:

"Father, if you say you were away for an hour, who was the abbot when you left?"

"Father Hilarion."

"And who was the hegumen?"

"Father Ambrose."

Then the abbot said: "A great mystery is shown to us." And he ordered the monastery's registrar to bring the archives of the monastery for the last few hundred years. They searched the archives for the last 50 years, then the last 100, then the last 200, then the last 300, and still couldn't find those names. They finally discovered some old archives, almost destroyed, somewhere in an attic, from 355 years before, and found the names that the old man mentioned.

The abbot asked the old man again:

"Father, when did you say you left the monastery?"

"About an hour ago."

"And what did you pray to God about before you left?"

"I have been praying for a long time to the Mother of God to ask the Savior to show me what the Psalter says: 'A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.'"

"Father, it looks like the All-Merciful God granted your wish! You didn't believe what the Psalter said, or maybe you believed it, but you wanted to be convinced. See, you have been gone for 355 years!"

The old man started to cry. The abbot said:

"See, father, that God showed you the miracle for which you prayed so earnestly? If 355 years seemed like an hour to you, do you believe now that a thousand years are to God like a day?"

"I believe it, father!"

Then the abbot commanded that one of the priests put the vestments on and give Holy Communion to the old monk before the brotherhood.

The old man received Holy Communion and said: "Forgive me, brothers, for a great wonder has been shown to me." And his face shone like the sun. He asked forgiveness from everyone, then fell asleep in the Lord in the church.

Biographical note on Elder Cleopa (from OrthodoxWiki):

Elder Cleopa (Ilie) (April 10, 1912 -December 2, 1998) was a very well-known monk and representative of the Romanian Orthodox Church and an archimandrite and abbot of the Sihastria Monastery.

Cleopa Ilie (lay name: Constantin) was born in Suliţa, Botoşani to a family of peasants. He was the fifth of ten children born to Alexandru Ilie. He attended the primary school in his village. Afterwards he was an apprentice for three years to the monk Paisie Olaru, who lived in seclusion at the Cozancea hermitage.

Together with his elder brother, Vasile, Ilie joined the community at Sihastria hermitage in December 1929. In 1935, he joined the army in the town of Botoşani, but returned a year later to the hermitage, where he was anointed a monk on August 2, 1937, taking the name "Cleopa" (i.e. "guide") at his baptism. In June 1942, he was appointed to hegumen deputy because of abbot Ioanichie Moroi's poor health.

On December 27, 1944, he was ordained a hierodeacon (deacon-monk) and on January 23, 1945 a hieromonk (priest-monk) by the archbishop Galaction Cordun, abbot of the Neamţ Monastery at the time. Afterwards he was officially appointed hegumen of the Sihastria Hermitage.

In 1947, the hermitage became a monastery and vice-archimandrite Cleopa Ilie became archimandrite on approval of Patriarch Nicodim. Because the Communist secret service was looking for him in 1948, he disappeared into the woods surrounding the monastery, staying there for six months. On August 30, 1949, he was appointed abbot of the Slatina Monastery in Suceava county, where he joined 30 other monks from the Sihastria Monastery community as a result of Patriarch Justinian’s decision.

There he founded a community of monks with over 80 people. Between 1952 and 1954 he was being chased again by the Securitate and, together with hieromonk Arsenie Papacioc, escaped to the Stanisoara Mountains. He was brought back to the monastery after two years upon Patriarch Justinian’s order.

In 1956 he returned to Sihastria monastery, where he had been anointed, and in the spring of 1959 he retired for the third time to the Neamţ Mountains, spending the next five years there. He returned to Sihastria in the fall of 1964, as confessor for the entire community and continued to give spiritual advice to both monks and lay people for the next 34 years. He died on December 2, 1998 at Sihăstria Monastery.

Elder Cleopa’s Grave at Sihăstria Monastery