Churches and Shrines
in Romania

The churches and shrines were one of our favorite things in Romania.
Nearly 90% of Romania is Romanian Orthodox.

Since Maria and Iovana are now Baptist, one of their neighbors offered to take me to the village Orthodox Church on Sunday. Eastern Orthodox churches are always highly decorated with painted icons and gold embellishments. This small village church had a sanctuary the size of a living room with very simple icons covering the walls and ceiling. Instead of gold embellishments, there were yellow and orange decorated borders. Many of the worshipers, stood through the entire mass.

The Eastern Orthodox liturgical cycle is based on a different calendar from the West, so their Easter season does not coincide with ours. The Sunday I was there happened to be their Pentecost celebration and the service lasted three hours instead of the usual two. There is always lots of chanting, incense and stand up/sit down. Mileva found a chair for me and put her hand on my shoulder, giving me permission to sit through the stand up parts.

A collection basket was brought around many times during the service. I didn’t have very much money with me and by the third go-around I was tearing Romanian ron (paper money) out of my travel journal. After I ran dry, Mileva took an extra coin each time, tapped it to my shoulder to indicate it was for me, and dropped it into the basket. I felt so bad because these are not rich people and I was sure each coin was very precious.

Later in the week I asked Nicole to talk to Mileva and see if I could replace her coins. Of course she said no, it was for the Church. So I gave her a small stone icon shrine that I’d purchased at the monastery gift shop. She was so moved and thankful, we both cried. The next day she brought me several small pieces of vintage macrame that were family heirlooms. I picked out one and tried to return the rest, but she insisted I take them all. They reminded her of her recently deceased son and made her sad, plus she wanted me to always remember Gornea.
How could I forget?

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the church in Gornea.

There were shrines all along the sides of the road in Romania.


Some looked like memorials and were probably the sites of fatal accidents. Many looked as though they were grave markers and more than likely the bodies were buried there.

Many were just holy places along the road.
Because it was still Easter season, many were decorated with rings or bouquets of flowers.