When driving on the A1 motorway sometimes you need a meal. You have brought some food and coffee, and just want to take a break. But when you stop at some of the dedicated areas near the highway, you begin to lose appetite. It is seldom very clean, it is often crowded and it is always ugly and noisy.
So instead we turned off the highway and found ourselves in Sălişte. Nice place, peaceful, some nice houses, a small river and a pleasant park. Some sculptures of famous people. One of them caught my eye. It was a man called Picu Pătruţ. I forgot to check who the sculptor was, but I promise to find out next time I get there.
But the main problem with Sălişte was that there was no cache there. So why not add a cache, and tell the cachers a little about Picu.
Picu Pătruţ (he was baptized Oprea, but is usually referred to as Picu) was born in Sălişte in 1818.
He had a weak health, and could not be sent out to guard the sheep. Instead he showed interest in religion, and already as a teenager he started to devote his life to God.
He visited monasteries in Vălcea, and he changed his name to Procopie (a name suitable for a monk), but he did not want to live in a monastery.
The historian Onisifor Ghibu (also born in Sălişte!) who discovered the works of Picu in the beginning of the 20th century has written about Pătruţ:
”Picu could never make the decision to live in a monastery, the contemplative life of which he deemed insufficient and the discipline of which he found overly weak as well as pointless. He did not feel any need for external constraint, but wished to master himself and life not only for himself and God, but for people, and not only in prayer, but above all in the love of his community and hard labour”
But the main reason Picu is still known is that he copied and illustrated Bibles and other religious litterature. He had a large library, more than 200 books (not common in those days), that he collected with the help of shepherds who practiced transhumance and had the opportunity to bring bibles and other books to Picu.
When copying the books he put great effort into illustrating them with miniatures, and he refined his techniques very much. His works have been exhibited at the Taranului museum in Bucharest and at the exhibition ”Europe´s last great miniaturist” at the Astra museum in Sibiu. More than 3000 of his miniatures are still preserved.
Picu Pătruţ also wrote popular plays with religious themes.
He is said to have died in 1882 of chest illness, brought about by a great crisis of conscience. Probably the diagnosis would have been different today.
A sculpture of Picu Pătruţ is situated in the Parcul Academicienilor in Sălişte where the cache is hidden. And if you cross the bridge you can probably buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the small market.
By the way, the most well-known man from Sălişte might possibly be the soccer player Michael Klein (1959-1993). He was born in the village Amnaş that is part of the town of Sălişte.
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