The life of St Demetrius of Basarabov
One incident from that boyhood has stayed attached to his memory: walking through a field, he crushed a hidden bird's nest underfoot without seeing it, and the grief this caused him was so sharp that he chose to go without shoes for three full years afterward, through cold and heat alike, as a penance for a harm he had never meant.
Grown, he took up monastic life in a community for some years before asking leave to withdraw entirely, settling into a lonely cave beside the River Lom, where he remained in solitude and prayer until his death. Villagers later found his remains in the waters of that same river and brought them to their parish church, where reports of healing soon gathered around them. Nearly five centuries afterward, in 1774, war between Russia and the Ottomans put the relics at risk, and a Russian commander had them moved for safety. A local Christian's plea kept most of them in the Balkans, and tradition holds that a small portion was carried north into Russian lands, while the greater part came that summer to rest in Bucharest's cathedral, where the city has honored him ever since as its guardian.
