The tombstone housing the mortal remains of Teofana the nun, mother of Mihai Viteazul, Prince of Wallachia, has stood for more than four centuries in the narthex of the church at Cozia Monastery, alongside the tomb of the founding prince, Mircea the Great.
Teodora (Tudora), who had taken the monastic vows and the name Teofana at the monastery founded by Mircea the Elder, where she felt more protected amongst the monks, was no ordinary nun, but the mother of a prince (though she was never referred to as either a wife or a Lady, as she was not married to Pătrașcu Vodă, Mihai’s father). She settled at the monastery in the autumn of 1599, before Mihai set out on his campaign to conquer Transylvania. ‘Mihai had left behind in the country, at the monastery known as Cozia, his mother, Teodora, a devout matron, who had refused to leave her homeland and had advised her son to give up Transylvania, for he would lose his life there”, records the Saxon historian Miles Mathias in 1670 1. The Transylvanian historian Ioan Lupaș also writes about this moment when Teodora arrived at Cozia: “When Mihai set out with his army to take Transylvania, he settled his elderly mother in Cozia Monastery”2.
Regarding Mihai Vodă’s mother, the chronicler Radu Popescu tells us that she was a Greek widow from Epirus, named Tudora, and that she was a ‘rachelniță’ 3, meaning she ran a tavern in this market town where she sold brandy. She was assisted in this small business by Iane Cantacuzino, her brother, a Greek who had access to influential figures at the Sublime Porte (he went on to become ban of Craiova)4.
From here, at the monastery on the banks of the River Olt, Mother Teofana was able to follow, her heart torn between high hopes and agonising fears, the changing fortunes of her son. It was here that she received news of her son’s triumph at Șelimbăr, of Mihai’s entry into the capital of Transylvania, of the convening of the first Transylvanian Diet under his leadership at Alba Iulia (November 1599) and of the lightning-fast conquest of Moldavia in the summer of 1600. The envoys bearing the glad tidings of Mihai’s brilliant victories and exploits found Mother Teofana in the tranquillity and piety of her cell at Cozia, ‘grateful to God for the blessings He had bestowed upon her after so much hardship […] so that she might devoutly await a peaceful end to her old age and frailty’5
Following the defeat of Mihai Viteazul at Mirăslău, Lady Stanca and her two children, Nicolae and Florica, were taken hostage in the fortress of Gilău, then taken into custody at Făgăraș, where they remained until the autumn of 1602, stripped of all their possessions by Captain Ștefan Csáky 6.
At the monastery on the banks of the River Olt, Teofana received the ‘cruel and heart-rending news of the passing’ of her beloved son, who had been treacherously murdered on the plain at Turda. ‘There, at Cozia, the sad news reached the nun Teofana. She did not even have the consolation of being able to attend her son’s funeral. For Mihai, having been beheaded, was buried in two parts: his body at Turda and his head at Dealului Monastery, laid to rest beneath a church stone by Radu Buzescu and his wife, Preda. The old woman sat there, weeping for days and months on end, both from her own grief and from her concern for her grandchildren, who had been left in Transylvania in the hands of the enemy, without support or money”7.
The poet Dimitrie Bolintineanu captured in verse all the pain the mother felt when she learnt of her son’s assassination:
“Near the Olt, at the monastery
, A soldier comes from the countryside
And asks in haste
, ‘Where is Mihai’s mother?
’ Teodora bows her head;
She prays for her son.
‘Mother nun,’ she sighs,
‘Your son is no more!
’ What forty great battles Could not bring
about,
Alas! I shall tell you,
Two bandits’ swords have done it!
Under death’s heavy blow,
did he, as he fell, defend himself?
Pierced by a spear, with honour,
he gave his precious life.
You speak the truth… He is
my most beloved son…
But can you bring me news
Of the Romanians—have they united?
He could not unite them,
For they themselves were not united.
All wish to rule
, And whilst they wait, they are all enslaved!
Your news is very sad,
Not that my Son has died,
But that even through His death
The Romanians have not been set free.
So spoke the great
lady, and she shut herself away in her chamber,
until, overcome with grief
, her eyes closed in tears’8
Following the assassination of the Brave One on the Plain of Turda on 9 August 1601, “in the 43rd year of his life” 9, the family was forced into exile. Before setting off for Prague, the two ladies – Stanca and Florica – went to Cozia Monastery to bid farewell to Mihai’s mother.
Grateful for the hospitality she had received at the monastery, and having reached “an age of old age, frailty and infirmity”, on 8 November 1601, Mother Teofana bequeathed the villages of Frăsinet and Studenița in Romanați County to Cozia Monastery, for the repose of her soul and that of Mihai Vodă. She owned these villages, along with others, namely Studina Mesteacănului, Studina Barbului, Crușovul, Frăsinetul de Câmpie and Studenița Hameiului, from her son Mihai, who had gifted them to her by means of a deed of confirmation drawn up in Târgoviște on 26 September 1597 10.
It should also be noted that, upon entering the monastery, Teofana had verbally promised these two villages to the monastic community, a promise she is now formalising, in the presence of her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, through a legal deed that cannot be contested by anyone:
‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I, the nun Theofana, now write this honourable document so that it may be known that I have reached a time of old age, frailty and infirmity. But I, Theofana the nun, mother of Prince Mihai, took the holy vows at the holy monastery known as Coziia at the Holy Trinity. After that, I donated and dedicated to the Holy Trinity two villages, namely Frăsinetul and Studenița, so that we too might be commemorated in the holy memorial, just as the other founders are commemorated: I, Theodora, and my son Mihai, Prince, and whoever may be inscribed on the holy memorial [...] And again, after that, I had the following bear witness: the Most Reverend Bishop Ephrem of Râmnic, his monk Arsenius, and the abbot Onofrie of Holy Cozia, together with the entire congregation; and the priest Andonie of Piatră and the priest Nicandru of the Metropolitan See; and the great merchants, namely Para and Sima, Pană, Giurgiu and Șteful, and many other merchants, as well as many people, both old and young, from the surrounding area, and, out of kindness, Thefani, Dobrin and Badea. And we willingly agreed to have our names commemorated for all time […] This inscription was written by the abbot of Cozia Monastery. And I myself taught the nun Theofana. Written on the 8th day of the month of November in the year 7110 [1601]”11.
A year later, but on the same day – 8 November 1602 – Mother Teofana, together with the ladies Stanca and Florica, met at Cozia Monastery and confirmed the endowment of the two villages, on their own behalf and on behalf of Nicolae Vodă. On this occasion too, the confirmation of the donation gave rise to a local celebration, attended by church dignitaries, boyars and villagers from Călimănești and Jiblea, led by their village elders and priests12.
The monk Gavriil Lotreanul recorded in writing the agreement as well as the dialogue between them in the authentic and beautiful Romanian language of the time:
‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. I, the handmaid of the Lord I[s]u[s]. H[risto]s, the nun Theofana, mother of the late Mihai Voivode of Wallachia, I have lived the life of this vain world, as the most proud Solomon says; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; it is deceitful and a thief of souls’. And I have enjoyed worldly pleasures in every way throughout my life, until I reached the infirmities of old age and my frailty in the holy monastery at Cozia, at the shrine of the Holy Trinity and at the resting place of the late Mircea Voivode. And I have lived to the point where I have taken upon myself, together with the holy five monks, the rightful lamentation for my sins. It was then that news reached me of the passing of my beloved son, Prince Mihail, and of the poverty of his wife and his children whilst in foreign lands. I wept and sighed day and night.
After that, by the will and with the help of the Lord in heaven, and through the prayers of the holy fathers day and night, and my lament and the sighs over their poverty in foreign lands, His Holiness in the highest heavens heard them and took pityand brought them back from foreign lands to their ancestral homeland; and even more so, they turned their thoughts to the holy monastery at Cozia for their elderly and sorrowful mother. And when they gathered together, there was great weeping and sighing amongst them for the sorrow of his son Mihail, the prince, and for the suffering endured in foreign lands by Lady Stanca, her son Io Nicola, Prince, and her daughter Lady Floriica.
After that, they asked one another how each had fared. Lady Stanca said: ‘May no one of our kin suffer as we have, Mother. But I beg you, Mother, how did you fare?’ The Mother said: ‘With great anguish over the death of my son and over your lordships’ grief; and through this holy monastery I have received grace from the dear Lord in heaven, and I thank the fathers of this holy monastery that I have found peace, rest and solace in their prayers during my time of need [sic]’. They replied: ‘We too are grateful for their prayers for your sake, for you sought them out.’ Mother Theophana said: ‘For this reason, my daughters, I have bequeathed to the holy monastery two villages in Romonați, Frăsinetul and Studenița, for the soul of the late Prince Mihail, for the health of his son Prince Nicolae, and for the remembrance of us and our entire family, that we may be commemorated at all the holy memorial services and at the Divine Liturgy for ever.’ Their Highnesses replied: ‘We are pleased. As the late Mihail vod[ă] has freely granted them to you, may they also be granted by us, and by Prince Nicola, and by our entire family for ever for the remembrance of the dead, so that you may have your prayers answered and, from this day forward, mercy and favour until death through their prayers’.
I, the nun Theofana, have bequeathed the two villages mentioned above to the holy monastery, together with all their boundaries, for eternal remembrance. And whoever, whether a relative of mine or any other stranger, should be tempted to destroy my memorial at the holy monastery which I have given of my own free will, let them be cursed by the 318 fathers who were in Nicheiu. And I say again: whoever among the fathers—whether those who are now here or who may come to be here until my death, or among the abbots or the other brothers—should cease to seek me out, to show me mercy, or to heed my needs, and when fear of great evils comes upon us and they forsake me before my passing, may God forsake them and may they be under the curse as stated above.
And I have called as witnesses: Father Bishop Ephrem of Rib[nic] and his monks, Proegumen Onufrie and Proegumen Veniamin and Arsenie and Abbot Theodoru of Cozia with the entire community, and Andonie the Elder of Piatră, and the servants of the ladies: Balea the steward, Dumitrachi the treasurer, Miho the merchant, Stan Borcioiul, Pătru the steward, Barbul the chamberlain, and Badea, servant to the elderly lady; the leading boyars: Vlad the logofăt of Olânești and Dragomir Dolofanul, the postelnic of Stoienești, and Stoica the logofăt of Berislăvești, and[ălab] Stan Hudea of Călim[ă]nești, and Father Jipa with his entire village, and Father Stan of Jiblea with his entire village, and all the servants of the holy monastery.
I, the novice monk Gavriil, Lotr[eanul] of the hermitage, wrote this letter in the holy monastery at Coziia, during the reign of Șerban vod[ă]. In the year 7111 [1602], in the month of Noem[brie], on the 8th day”13
Following their journey to Vienna, Lady Stanca and her daughter Florica returned to Wallachia in the spring of 1603, having been assured by the imperial authorities that they would grant support to Nicolae Pătrașcu, who had remained in Graz in the service of Archduke Ferdinand 14.
At that time, the country and the region of Vâlcea were gripped by a plague epidemic, which had broken out at the end of 1602, the disease having been brought by passing troops as well as by residents travelling back and forth across the Carpathians.
After arriving in the town of Râmnic, Lady Stanca contracted the plague and did not survive. The body of the woman who had been the wife of Mihai Viteazul was laid to rest in the courtyard of the Diocese of Râmnic, the funeral ceremony being conducted under the guidance of Bishop Efrem, with all the honour befitting her rank. She was laid to rest by her relatives, a crowd of boyars both high and low, townspeople and peasants from the surrounding area, and former soldiers of Mihai Viteazul15. The location of Lady Stanca’s grave is unknown today.
Shrouded in mystery, Mother Teofana (Teodora), Mihai’s mother, devoted her final days to monastic life, where she found refuge for both body and soul. Nun Teofana passed away in the Lord in 1605/1606 at Cozia Monastery and was buried in the narthex of the main church, directly in front of the tomb of Mircea Voivode.
Later, her grandchildren, Nicolae Pătrașcu and Florica, placed a beautiful gravestone above her final resting place, which remains intact to this day. The tomb was in the form of a vaulted sarcophagus. The narrow stone, yellowed by time, is approximately 1.75 m long and measures about 45 cm in width. In the centre of the gravestone is inscribed a patriarchal cross decorated with geometric motifs, surmounted by the inscription IHЦI (= ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’) and the monogram IS.HS./NI.KA (= ‘Jesus Christ, the Victor’).
At the bottom are the initials of the four evangelists: MѲ (Matthew), Л (Luke), MP (Mark) and Б (John the Theologian).
At the base of the cross is the skull of Adam, which, according to tradition, was buried beneath Golgotha, a name which literally means ‘the Place of the Skull’ (John 19:17). Here it is highly stylised and framed by the letters ‘ГÁ’, which are an abbreviation of Gora/Golgotha. The cross is framed by monograms within a linear border, bearing an inscription in Romanian but written in Cyrillic script: ‘May the servant of God, the nun Theofana, mother of the late Mihailŭ voivode, and may she rest in peace; Lady Florica and her son, Nicolae vod[ă], have endeavoured and written this for you, I, Radulŭ vod[ă]; year 7114 (1605/1606)’16
In the volume Trecute vieți de doamne și domnițe (Past Lives of Ladies and Princesses), Constantin Gane recounts the end of the Brave One’s mother: “And three years later, in 1606, this elderly woman—a former innkeeper, the prince’s mistress, a fugitive, a wanderer, a Lady and a nun—passed away, gentle and devout. Her grandchildren, Nicolae and Florica inscribed on her gravestone—which can still be seen today in the great church at Cozia—the most beautiful eulogy that could have been composed for her: ‘Here rests the nun Teofana, mother of the late Mihail Voivode’”17.
Romanian historiography has recorded an error, as earlier studies 18 claimed that the children of Mihai Viteazul, Florica and Nicolae, were also buried in Mother Teofana’s tomb. This error stemmed from the incorrect transliteration of the text inscribed on the tombstone. Their names were included, as can be seen from the text, to indicate that they were the patrons and the ones who commissioned the text inscribed on the tombstone, and not to suggest that they were buried in the same tomb as their grandmother.
Indeed, it is a well-known fact that Princess Florica, daughter of Mihai Viteazul, was buried at Mihai Vodă Monastery in Bucharest (1678), whilst her brother, Nicolae Pătrașcu, was buried by his wife, Lady Anca, in the Serbian Orthodox Church in Györ (1627), and in February 1641,19 was reburied at Comana Monastery (Giurgiu County).
Both Teofana’s tomb and that of Mircea the Elder were desecrated in 1821, following the defeat of the Eterists by the Turks; in 1847, during the consolidation and restoration work on the church, and also during the German army’s occupation in the First World War, in 1917 20. A report dated 22 November 1918 stated that the damage to Cozia Monastery was enormous, caused by the occupation and withdrawal of enemy troops 21.
In 1913, General Petre Vasiliu-Năsturel surveyed the graves at Cozia and left a drawing of the gravestone of Mother Teofana: ‘Next to the grave of Mother Cozianu lies the grave of Lady Teodora, the mother of Mihai Viteazul. To prevent the stone from being worn away by time, a caretaker monk has fenced off both graves with green oak and fir foliage; I found them also covered with a red cloth: a somewhat belated outward sign of respect, but as the Romanian saying goes, ‘better late than never’; for lo and behold, the stone of Lady Teofana too is in danger of being worn away, and I thought that, just in case, it would be better to reproduce it here so that a faithful copy might also be found in libraries”22.
On the initiative of the scholar Nicolae Iorga, the tombstone of the great voivode was restored, and on 15 May 1938 the ceremony for the reburial of the remains of Mircea the Elder and Teodora (Teofana), the mother of Voivode Mihai the Brave, was held. The ceremony was attended by His Grace Vartolomeu Stănescu, Bishop of Râmnic, Prince Mihai, Grand Voivode of Alba Iulia, Commander Fundătureanu, Nicolae Iorga, Chairman of the Commission for Historical Monuments, Father Nicolae (Nae) Popescu, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Arts, Ioan Lupaș, professor at the University of Cluj and member of the Romanian Academy; Dimitrie Dimăncescu, Director-General of the Press and Propaganda; Major-General Dumitru Popescu, Commander of the First Corps of Oltenia; and23, Mayor of Jiblea. King Michael I was to return to the royal tombs at Cozia Monastery after almost six decades, in 1997.
The main church at Cozia also housed other tombs: that of Metropolitan Varlaam of Ungrovlahia (1672–1679), who fell asleep in the Lord on 18 November 1702, and those of the boyars Dumitrașco vel Paharnic, who died in 1706, and Ioan Groful Bălăceanu, who died in 1737 24.
The church founded by Mircea Vodă at Călimănești on the River Olt still preserves, within its centuries-old walls, the boundless grief of Mother Teofana for the tragic and sudden death of her beloved son, as well as the tender recollection recorded on parchment by the monk Efrem concerning the donations she made to the monastery community.
- 1
Mathias Miles, The Transylvanian Strangling Angel, or a chronicle appendix. covering the 15th century after the birth of Christ, relating to events that took place partly in Transylvania, partly in Hungary, and partly in other countries bordering Transylvania; from which emerge not only the most gruesome and bloody attacks, wars and reports of the The Chief Regent of the Saxon Nation, Ed. Andreas Fleischer, Sibiu, 1670, p. 241.
- 2
Ioan Lupaș, ‘Tudora, the mother of Mihai Viteazul’, in Historical Studies, Lectures and Papers, Vol. I, Bucharest, 1928, pp. 117–121.
- 3
Documenta Romaniae Historica (D.R.H.), Vol. Wallachia, 17th Century/1, Bucharest, 1951, pp. 18–22.
- 4
Ioan C. Filitti, The Mother and Wife of Mihai Viteazul (revised edition), Scrisul Românesc, Craiova, 1934, p. 3.
- 5
Ibid., p. 14.
- 6
Andrei Veress, Documents Relating to the History of Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia, Vol. VI – Deeds and Letters (1527–1572), Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishers, 1929, pp. 317–318.
- 7
Constantin Gane, Past Lives of Ladies and Young Ladies, Vol. I, published by Universul S.A., Bucharest, 1933, p. 149.
- 8
Dimitrie Bolintineanu, ‘Mihai’s Mother’, in Poems, Vol. I, Historical Legends. The Flowers of the Bosphorus. Fairy Tales. Notes, with a preface by G. Sion, published by Librăria Socecu & Comp., Bucharest, 1877, p. 100.
- 9
Ion C. Băcilă, The Portraits of Mihai Viteazul, published by the ‘Astra’ Association, Sibiu, 1926, pp. 12–18.
- 10
Șerban Cioculescu, ‘The Gift from the Brave Lord’s Mother’, in România literară, Vol. VIII, No. 22, 29 May 1975, p. 7.
- 11
National Archives of Bucharest, Register of Cozia Monastery, file XXIV/5, manuscript 712, folio 519v.
- 12
D.R.H., B., pp. 65–67.
- 13
National Archives of Bucharest, Register of Cozia Monastery, file XXIV/5, manuscript 712, folio 520v.
- 14
A. Veress, Documents…, VII, pp. 95–97.
- 15
Documents relating to the history of the Romanians, vol. I: 17th century, p. 105.
- 16
Constantin Bălan, Medieval and Modern Inscriptions of Romania. The Historic County of Vâlcea (14th century – 1848), Bucharest, Romanian Academy Press, 2005, p. 306.
- 17
Constantin Gane, Past Lives of Ladies and Young Ladies, p. 151.
- 18
Virgil N. Drăghiceanu, ‘The Tomb of Mircea-Vodă the Elder’, in the Bulletin of the Commission for Historical Monuments, Year XXIV, issue 67, published by ‘Datina Românească’ Printing House, Vălenii de Munte, January–March 1931, p. 21.
- 19
Constantin Rezachevici, A Critical Chronology of the Rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia, Ed. Enciclopedică, Bucharest, 2001, pp. 406–407.
- 20
Drăghiceanu N. V., op. cit., p. 21.
- 21
Archimandrite Gamaliel Vaida, Cozia Monastery, the famous foundation of Mircea the Great. 600 Years of Existence, published by the Diocese of Râmnic and Argeș, Râmnicu Vâlcea, 1986, p. 795.
- 22
Vasiliu Petre Năsturel, ‘Churches, monasteries and hermitages in Oltenia’, in Journal of History, Archaeology and Philology, XIV, Ed. “Carol Göbl” Institute of Graphic Arts, Bucharest, 1913, p. 84.
- 23
‘Albina’, 27 May 1938.
- 24
Archimandrite Gamaliel Vaida, op. cit., pp. 38–39.