John of Prislop was a Romanian monk and hermit associated with the Prislop Monastery in the Hateg region of Transylvania, in present-day Hunedoara County. The surviving accounts of his life are brief and rest largely on local tradition; no precise dates are recorded, and the synaxarion places him, by tradition, in the second half of the fifteenth century or the first half of the sixteenth century. He is commemorated by the Romanian Orthodox Church on September 13.
By tradition he was born in the village of Silvasu de Sus, in the Hateg area, and as a young man left his family home to enter the monastery of Prislop (earlier known as Silvasu), where he lived a life of prayer, labor, and good works. Seeking greater solitude, he withdrew to a more secluded life and carved a cell into the rock by his own effort, about five hundred meters from the monastery on the steep bank of the Slivut River. The cell, known locally as 'the saint's cell' or 'the saint's house,' is still pointed out in the area.
According to popular tradition, John met a violent death: while he was opening a window in his stone cell, two hunters on the opposite bank of the ravine shot him, not knowing who he was. He came to be regarded as holy during his own lifetime and after his death. The sources relate that monks from the Romanian lands south of the mountains (Wallachia) later came to request his body from his relatives and carried it to one of their monasteries; the particular house is not securely identified, with Tismana, Curtea de Arges, and Cozia named as possibilities.
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church formally canonized John of Prislop in 1992, among the figures of Romanian sanctity recognized in that period. He is venerated especially by the faithful of the Hateg and Hunedoara regions, where his memory and his carved cell remain local landmarks.
