Cassiana of Mount Ceahlau

Cassiana was a schemanun and abbess, founder of Cassiana Skete in the Buhalnița valley, near Ceahlău, in the seventeenth century. She is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

She had taken her vows at Topolița Monastery near Târgu Neamț. She withdrew to the Bistrița Valley with a few disciples and lived first as a hermit in the forests of Hangu. Gathering other nuns around her, she founded a small wooden skete in the valley of the Buhalnița stream, called Cassiana Skete, which she guided spiritually to the end of her life.

The nuns' struggle was the same as in all the hermitages around Ceahlău: every day they sang the seven praises, in their cells they read the Psalter, ate once a day and lived in silence and humility. Cassiana's name was known in the villages of the Bistrița Valley, for she was a known spiritual mother and intercessor for all, and each benefited from her struggle.

Toward the middle of the seventeenth century Abbess Cassiana passed to the rest of Christ, leaving many disciples.