Born during the reign of Vasile Lupu, the daughter of the chief armourer of Neamț Citadel, the boyar Ștefan Joldea. In her youth, she was married off against her will. Being childless, both she and her husband decide to embrace monasticism, he withdrawing to Poiana Mărului monastery under the name Elfterie, and she to Vărzărești. Foreign invasions prompt her to retreat into the Buzău Mountains (she is said...