Antonina of Tismana

Saint Antonina of Tismana, a venerable nun, lived at Tismana Monastery in Gorj County and laboured as a fool for Christ and a hesychast. She was born on 7 March 1923 in the village of Mihăești in Vâlcea County, and passed to the Lord on 23 December 2011 at Tismana. Her family name was Diaconu.

She was known for a special love and devotion toward the Mother of God and toward Saint Nicodemus the Sanctified, the founder of Tismana. She was a great ascetic of stillness, and people say that even in her lifetime she had the gifts of working miracles and of seeing by the Spirit. Her obedience, for forty years, was in the pig yard.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized her at its session of 1 July 2025, with the title Saint Venerable Antonina of Tismana, and set her feast on 23 December, the day of her repose.