St. Theodora of Sihla (born 1650 – d. ?) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n Christian Orthodox saint, commemorated on August 7.

Life

Born in

Vânători-Neamț Vânători-Neamț is a commune in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Lunca, Mânăstirea Neamț, Nemțișor, and Vânători-Neamț. The commune lies on the banks of the river Nemțișor. It is located in ...

Neamț County Neamț County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. The county takes its name from the Neamț River. Demographics Population In 2011, it had a population of 470,76 ...

during the reign of

Vasile Lupu Lupu Coci, known as Vasile Lupu (; 1595–1661), was a Voivode of Moldavia of Albanian origin between 1634 and 1653. Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years. Va ...

, she was the daughter of the chief armourer of

Neamț Citadel Neamț Citadel ( ro, Cetatea Neamț or Cetatea Neamțului, ) is a medieval fortress located in north-eastern part of Romania, near Târgu Neamț, Neamț County. It was built in 14th century Moldavia during Petru I of Moldavia's reign and expanded ...

, the

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...

Ștefan Joldea. In her youth, she was married off against her will. Being childless, both she and her husband decide to embrace monasticism, he withdrawing to Poiana Mărului monastery under the name Elfterie, and she to Vărzărești. Foreign invasions prompt her to retreat into the

Buzău Mountains The Buzău Mountains are a set of six mountains ranges in Romania which are part of the Curvature Carpathians region of the Outer Eastern Carpathians. These six mountain ranges are as follows: * * * * * *. The Penteleu and Ivănețu Massifs are ...

(she is said to have also passed through the woodland hermitage Fundătura),Diana-Liana Gavrilă, ''Enigme ale trecutului îndepărtat în Munții Buzăului - Munții Buzăului între mister și realitate'', Editura Alpha MDN, 2013, p. 120, where she lived for nearly a decade (her name is mentioned in an inscription on the altar stone of the woodland hermitage at New Agaton). From here she went firstly to Neamț monastery, where she was guided towards Sihăstria hermitage, in the Neamț Mountains. With the guidance of Sihăstria's abbot, and with the blessing of the hermitage's egumen, she ascended the mountains to become an anchorite in the Sihla wilderness. The word "sihlă" means thick forest of young trees; thicket.Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române Ed. a II-a (revăzută și adăugită), Academia Română - Institutul de Lingvistică "Iorgu Irodan", Editura Univers Enciclopedic Gold, București, 2012 Over a century later, Calistrat Hogaș described the hermit's environment: : "Dacă Sihla nu pășește dincolo de marginile firești, apoi are cel puțin însușirea de a atinge aproape culmea de asprime, singurătate și sălbăticie a celei mai puternice închipuiri." : ''"If Sihla does not surpass eartly imagination, it is about as harsh, lonely, and wild a place as one could possibly conceive."'' Theodora initially lived in a cottage in a rocky part of Sihla, left to her by an elderly monk. Oral tradition recounts that nuns fleeing from foreign invasions came across the saint's cottage, who relinquished it to move into a cave, even more remote than her initial abode.

Posthumous legacy

After her death, the body of the St. Theodora remained in the cave in which she had spent the greater part of her hermitage. The knowledge of her life and death is said to have reached her husband, who left Poiana Mărului and came to spend the last decade of his life at Sihăstria, close to his wife's resting place. Around 1725, Sihla monastery was founded in her memory. She remained buried there until circa 1828-1834 when, during the Russian occupation of the

Romanian Principalities The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th c ...

, she was translated to Lavra Pecerska in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. The Romanian writer Calistrat Hogaș wrote about her in his book "Pe drumuri de munte"("On mountain paths"): The Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed the canonization of St. Theodora of Sihla on June 20, 1992, establishing her commemoration on August 7.

References

Bibliography

Sf. Cuvioasă Teodora de la Sihla - Viața și nevoințele
rext preluat din Pr. Prof. Dr. Constantin Galeriu, ''Sfinți români și apărători ai Legii strămoșești'', Editura - Institutului Biblic și de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, București, 1987, p. 432-442, Cuvioasa Teodora de la Sihla * ''Dicționar Religios'', Ion M. Stoian, Ed. Garamond, 1994 * Balan, Ioanichie, ''Sfânta Teodora de la Sihla'', Editura Mănăstirea Sihăstria, 2004.

External links

Teodora de la Sihla
OrthodoxWiki

25 May 2012, Pr. Prof. Dr. Mircea Păcurariu, ''CrestinOrtodox.ro''
Prima româncă trecută în rândul sfinților
7 August 2007, Nicoleta Olaru, ''Ziarul Lumina''
Mireasa lui Hristos din Munții Neamțului
7 August 2008, Narcisa Elena Balaban, ''Ziarul Lumina''
Cuvioasa desăvârșită în pustiul Sihlei
7 August 2010, Silviu Dascălu, ''Ziarul Lumina''
Panteon creștin - Cuvioasa Teodora
24 April 2002, ''Revista Magazin''

24 July 2013, ''CrestinOrtodox.ro''

7 August 2009, ''CrestinOrtodox.ro''

2 July 2012, Teodor Dănălache, ''CrestinOrtodox.ro'' {{authority control 1650 births Year of death unknown 17th-century Romanian people 17th-century Eastern Orthodox nuns Eastern Orthodox saints Romanian saints 17th-century Romanian women People from Neamț County