In anticipation of the year 2026, declared the Commemorative Year of Holy Women in the Calendar by the Romanian Patriarchate, we turn our attention to several notable figures of Romanian women who lived their lives with deep faith and dedication to God, becoming models of holiness.

These women, through their virtuous lives, left a lasting spiritual legacy, often enduring great trials, including the challenges of the communist regime.

We present the first six brief biographies, gathered under the title of a “small digital matericon,” arranged chronologically by year of birth.

Nun Agafia Ilie (1876 – 1968)

Nun Agafia (Agatha) Ilie was the mother of Saint Cleopas of Sihăstria, a sacrificial mother who bore ten children and endured the sorrow of losing nine of them at a young age. Of these, five entered monastic life, and the one who lived to an advanced age was Saint Cleopas.

Elder Ioanichie Bălan vividly portrays Nun Agafia Ilie in a volume dedicated to the life of Father Cleopas and in the Romanian Patericon, among the monks and nuns who led holy lives in the 20th century.

Saint Cleopas often spoke of the atmosphere of piety in his childhood home. They had a room filled with icons, resembling a chapel, where the parents and children would rise at night to read the Psalter and make prostrations. The parents, Alexandru and Ana, were ever-present at church services, practised almsgiving, never spoke improper words to one another, and led a life in Christ.

Father Ioanichie Bălan describes Nun Agafia thus: “She was a simple woman, small in stature, without formal education, but with an exceptional memory. She often wept, for she had the gift of tears.” After becoming a widow in 1943, Father Cleopa brought her to the Agapia Veche Skete, where she was tonsured into monasticism with the name Agafia. After 20 years of monastic life, she reposed in the Lord on September 15, 1968, at 92.

Nun Olga Gologan (1889-1971)

Nun Olga Gologan was born on May 23, 1889, in Ialomița County. At the age of seven, she entered as a novice into the community of the Țigănești Monastery near Bucharest under the guidance of her aunt, Nun Epiharia Moisescu.

She became a teacher at the St. Catherine Orphanage in Bucharest and later worked at her aunt’s association for orphaned children, “The Protection of the Mother of God.” World War II’s outbreak led to the association’s relocation to the Bistrița Monastery in Vâlcea County.

One of the nuns who accompanied Mother Olga recalls that upon arriving at the monastery, “they made their way through grass two meters high in the courtyard to enter the church and venerate the relics of Saint Gregory the Decapolite.”

After Nun Epiharia’s withdrawal, sister Olga took over the association’s leadership. Due to her extensive work, filled with love and sacrifice for the children and nuns, she earned the title “Mother Olga.” She gathered around her over 200 nuns and 800 children, whom she nurtured spiritually while ensuring their material needs were met.

She brought renowned spiritual fathers from Bucharest—Saint Sofian Boghiu, Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș, and Father Daniil Sandu Tudor—to teach the nuns the Prayer of the Heart. Mother Olga encouraged her disciples to practice unceasing prayer for all their needs and was ever-present at the monastery’s divine services.

The children were involved in artistic activities, such as performances, which were one of the monastery’s sources of income, alongside translations. With these resources, Mother Olga managed to pay for an electric plant, thus bringing electricity to the monastery’s buildings. In all these endeavors, she was supported by her sister, Nun Teodosia Gologan.

From 1948, they provided food supplies to anti-communist fighters in the Arnota Mountains, for which they were arrested and interrogated for several months. Neither she nor her sister ever complained or spoke of this difficult trial. In 1954, she was forced to resign and, together with Nun Teodosia, withdrew to a house near the Bistrița Monastery, where they were prohibited from wearing monastic habits.

Later, they retired to the Viforâta Monastery, where they reposed in the Lord. Her portrait is depicted in a work published in 2018 under the coordination of His Eminence Archbishop Varsanufie of Râmnicu, titled The Matericon of the Vâlcea Monasteries.

Olga Greceanu (1890 – 1978)

Although a prominent figure in Romanian culture, Olga Greceanu’s legacy was overshadowed by oblivion. Few still recall her numerous contributions to painting, literature, and the promotion of Romanian values abroad. The communist regime sought to erase her name from the country’s history by burning or hiding her books and covering her paintings with lime.

After 1989, her works, manuscripts, and frescoes resurfaced, along with testimonies about her character. Some of the preserved manuscripts had been entrusted to her friend, Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș, whom she met at the gatherings of the Burning Bush (Rugul Aprins) movement, where she was the only woman participant.

Olga Greceanu was born on August 17, 1890, at the Nămăiești Monastery in Argeș County, the daughter of a Catholic Polish nobleman and a Protestant mother of German descent. The couple had their last two children, including Olga, baptized in the Orthodox faith. Her fervent activity within the Church and defense of the Orthodox faith were entirely her own choice.

She was married for 47 years to Nicolae Greceanu, a renowned engineer, owner of the oldest fortified manor in Măldărești, and a descendant of the boyar nobility. These factors contributed to the persecution and social marginalization they endured under the communist regime.

A major contribution of Olga Greceanu is her Orthodox Biblical Dictionary, in which she explained and interpreted events and figures from Holy Scripture. She wrote eight volumes by hand, with remarkable calligraphy, which she donated to the Library of the Holy Synod. She published several books, including specialized works, commentaries on the Divine Liturgy, travel impressions, and fiction.

She was awarded the Patriarchal Cross and was granted the unique privilege, under Patriarchs Nicodim and Justinian, to preach in churches. She had a fixed schedule, dedicating each day of the week to a different church in Bucharest, and on Sundays, she preached at various churches on a rotating basis.

Her primary activity centered around painting, particularly religious mural painting. Her spiritual father, Saint Sofian of St Anthimos Monastery, testified in 2000 that “her name cannot be overlooked when judging the history of Romanian mural painting.”

She studied exact sciences in Belgium but also attended the Academy of Fine Arts and undertook study trips to Italy and France. She researched the contributions of women to painting in the United States and Nordic countries, and upon returning to Romania, she helped organize exhibitions of women painters.

Together with Cecilia Crețescu-Storck, she founded the first Fine Arts Union in Romania. She opened an exhibition of Romanian paintings in New York, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited her to the White House.

She painted in several institutions in Bucharest, such as the Sector 1 City Hall, the Royal Station in Mogoșoaia, and the Palace of the Holy Synod. She entirely painted the church in Bălteni village, Dâmbovița County, created the four mosaics in the porch of the St Anthimos Monastery and contributed to the repainting of numerous places of worship, including the church in Mănăstirea village, Călărași County, and the Tudor Vladimirescu and Bariera Rahovei churches in Bucharest.

From 1968, among the churches she restored under the Patriarchate’s authorization were Precupeții Noi, Sapienței, Bumbăcari, St. John–Market, and the Darvari Skete.

At age 78, she was still restoring churches alongside her spiritual father, Saint Sofian. She reposed in the Lord at 88, still climbing scaffolding to restore paintings. Some sources note that she passed into eternity after descending from the scaffolding at the Darvari Skete and entering her workshop. She was buried in Bellu Cemetery.

Presbytera Maria Stăniloae (1906 – 1993)

Presbytera Maria Stăniloae was the wife of Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, the most significant Orthodox theologian of the 20th century, recently canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

She is often called a “model priest’s wife,” and since 2022, a group of priests’ wives from Orthodox parishes in Germany have taken her as the patroness of their association.

Maria Stăniloae was born on August 3, 1906, in the village of Șura Mare, Sibiu County, into a peasant family with eight children. She married Dumitru Stăniloae during her student years when he was a young professor at the Theological Academy. They had three children together. The first two, twins Dumitru and Mioara, reposed in the Lord at young ages. Their third child, Lidia, lived to be 83 and became a writer and scholar.

Insights into Maria Stăniloae’s character can be gleaned from her daughter’s book, The Light of Deeds from the Light of the Word – Together with My Father, Dumitru Stăniloae, and from a book of dialogues with her grandson, Dumitru Horia Ionescu, The Stăniloae Family Book.

Lidia Stăniloae describes her mother as “a being of rare devotion, with a profoundly just judgment and a strength of faith and love for others that I have never encountered elsewhere. She understood people deeply, possessing a sixth sense that never failed her.”

She stood by her husband for over 60 years, “supporting him, never losing her courage,” and awaiting his return from an unjust five-year imprisonment in communist jails.

Horia Ionescu recalls his grandmother recounting “everything that happened in the Old and New Testaments.” He adds, “She knew the Holy Scriptures at an expert level. Around 1947, she resolved to memorize as much of the Bible as possible, anticipating when it might be banned and even confiscated.”

Touching accounts also describe her final earthly days, when, though significantly weakened and “reduced to a mere shadow of herself,” she retained her sound judgment and gift for understanding people.

Lidia Stăniloae recorded these wise words left by her mother: “Nothing is more lamentable than the malice that hardens souls and stifles them… It kills them.”

Presbytera Maria Stăniloae reposed in the Lord on March 22, 1993, and was buried at Cernica Monastery, where her husband would also be laid to rest a few months later.

God answered Presbytera Maria’s prayer to depart before her husband. On the day of her funeral, Father Dumitru was described as “a deeply sorrowful elder,” “weeping quietly, turned inward, detached from all that was happening around him, except for the coffin where rested the one who had been his support, help, and hope throughout his life.”

Blondina Gobjilă (1906 – 1971)

Blondina Gobjilă was born on February 24, 1906, in a village in Bessarabia, the youngest daughter of a priestly family. Her parents named her Blondina after Saint Blandina the Martyr of Lugdunum, commemorated on July 25.

From a young age, she sang in the church choir and knew the Divine Liturgy by heart. She became a teacher and married engineer Gheorghe Gobjilă, with whom she had a son.

When Russia took control of Bessarabia in June 1940, Blondina’s family was unable to flee to Romania. The communist authorities wanted to keep them in Bessarabia because they were valued by the community and needed there.

Mother Blondina stood firm and courageous before the Bolsheviks, expressing her desire to leave for Romania, which she wished to serve. Her husband was arrested without cause and deceived into signing his sentence under the false promise that his wife would remain free. However, they imprisoned her as well, simply for being a member of the arrested man’s family.

Her experiences in the Siberian labor camps are described in her memoir, The Sufferings of Mother Blondina.

For 15 years, she was deprived of freedom, enduring cold, hunger, exhausting labor, and forced domicile. Her suffering was alleviated by the thought of the Savior Christ, whom she saw in a dream while in prison, crucified, with a crown of thorns on His head, saying to her: “See how much I, too, suffer unjustly, innocent?”

After her release, Mother Blondina settled in Iași and continued to serve her neighbor, leading a sacrificial life in constant prayer. Her hardships did not cease even after settling in Iași, as she faced temptations from her son, who was married to an atheist woman.

However, God brought her comfort through her service in the Metropolitan Cathedral near Saint Paraskeva the New, who worked numerous miracles in her life.

In her memoir, Mother Blondina also recorded miracles performed by Saint Paraskeva for others, of which she was a witness.

She reposed in the Lord on May 24, 1971, and at her funeral, on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, a remarkable crowd gathered, including doctors, professors, clergy, monks, and the poor and afflicted whom she had helped. They called her “Mother Blondina” because of her love and heartfelt warmth.

Her son, who had not visited her during her illness, arrived in Iași just hours before the funeral and was astonished by the outpouring of love surrounding his mother, a martyr and a model of sacrifice.

Schema-nun Paisia Simion (1908 – 2013)

In front of a house near Rahova Square in Bucharest, people from all walks of life—laity, clergy, and monastics—would frequently gather, seeking spiritual counsel. Each came to bring their sorrows before Schema-Nun Paisia, who was bedridden but endowed by God with many spiritual gifts and a spirit of peace and joy that she imparted to others.

Few sources, physical or digital, provide details about her life. Some information and anecdotes appear in the book The Saints Beside Us by Ciprian Voicilă, which describes an encounter with the nun. Details about her life were also passed down through those who met her and through her spiritual father, Father Irineu Curtescu, the abbot of Ponor Monastery.

Schema-Nun Paisia was born in Curt Bunar, in the Quadrilateral region, and led a life wholly dedicated to others. In her simple home, she welcomed travellers from within Romania and beyond its borders.

She offered shelter to Father Nicodim Măndiță, who was pursued by the communist regime. The fathers of the Holy Mount tonsured her directly into the great monastic schema. It is said that her spine was broken, yet she bore her cross with joy, wholeheartedly desiring to follow Christ and the martyrs.

Mother Paisia reposed in the Lord on November 24, 2013, at the age of 105, and was buried in the cemetery of Pasărea Monastery.

In the homily delivered at her funeral, her spiritual father, Father Irineu, emphasized that her greatest ascetic feats were fasting, prayer, and reading spiritual books. On the same occasion, Father Emanuel Ganciu also spoke briefly, recounting how, through the prayers of Mother Paisia, a priest who had suffered a stroke was healed overnight.