Sihla Monastery

Sihla Monastery lies at about 1,000 m altitude among the rocks of the Sihla ridge in the Stânișoara Mountains, on the forest road linking the village of Agapia with the Sihăstria and Secu monasteries. The place is associated with St Theodora of Sihla, daughter of Ștefan Joldea, an officer at Neamț Citadel, born around 1650 in Vânători-Neamț. According to monastic tradition, she lived as a hermit in the Sihla forests, at the end of her life in a rock cave. Her body remained in the cave until around 1828-1834, when it was taken to the Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv. The Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed her a saint on 20 June 1992, with her feast on 7 August. According to the history published by the monastery, Sihla Skete was founded in 1731. The main wooden church, dedicated to the Nativity of St John the Baptist, was founded in 1741 by the Cantacuzino family and owes its present appearance to its renewal in 1813 by Archimandrite Benedict, abbot of the Neamț and Secu monasteries. Higher up, by the rocks, stands the church of the Transfiguration, known as the "church from a single fir tree", built in 1763 by Ionița Cantacuzino Pașcanu in memory of his friend Ioan Coroi, who died during a deer hunt. St Theodora's cave lies among the rocks close to this small church and to the old cells beneath the cliff. In November 2011 the skete became a monastery, under the name of the Nativity of St John the Baptist Monastery, Sihla. The community numbers about 30 monks, and the patronal feast is on 24 June. The Sihla Skete complex is a historic monument (LMI code NT-II-a-B-10584), with its two wooden churches listed separately: the Nativity of St John the Baptist (1741, NT-II-m-B-10584.01) and the Transfiguration (1763, NT-II-m-B-10584.02).