Olympias of Fărcașa

About Olympias of Fărcașa

Olympias of Fărcașa, known in Romanian as Olimpiada Tănase, was a laywoman and mother of eight children. Her son Petroniu became a monk at the Romanian skete of Prodromu on Mount Athos. She knew prayers and church hymns by memory despite being unable to read.

She was born in Fărcașa on September 8, 1880. Bishop Timotei Prahoveanul cites a municipal record naming her parents as Grigore Asaftei and Sultana. In January 1903 she married Ion Tănase, who moved into her family home. He died in 1942, leaving her a widow.

Her son remembered a household shaped by church services and mutual requests for forgiveness. She offered food to travelers and poor neighbors and brought water to a sick woman. One Holy Thursday, she washed the feet of a bedridden neighbor in remembrance of Christ washing his disciples’ feet.

Relatives interviewed by Timotei remembered her helping village women during childbirth and knew her as Moșica Anica. Her children’s lives took different paths: Petru entered monastic life as Petroniu, while Dumitru died during the war at the Don. In her later illness, daughters Ioana and Glicheria cared for her. The family’s recollections describe both the help she gave and the help she eventually needed.

Her church biography describes her preparing for death with confession and Communion, then spending her final days in prayer and song. She died on July 4, 1967. The Romanian Orthodox Church canonized her in 2025 and assigned her feast to July 4.

The local proclamation took place at Saint Nicholas Church in Fărcașa on July 4, 2026. Her relics were placed in the parish church, where the congregation could venerate them.