Over 200 pilgrims from across Romania set out on a long, on-foot journey to take part in services at the Ceahlău Monastery, located at about 1,800 meters in the Carpathian Mountains.

This year’s pilgrimage in honor of the “nymț” saints—an event held for the 12th time—began when 110 young people left from Iași. Over the course of a week, they covered the route from Iași to the Niamț Monastery, then to Ceahlău, and onward to the Sihla Monastery, walking roughly 35 kilometers per day. Groups joined them from Botoșani, Piatra Neamț, and other towns.

According to the pilgrimage organizers, each day started with prayer and the Divine Liturgy. Along the way, the pilgrims visited churches, and they slept at parishes that hosted participants.

“Pilgrimage is a meeting with people, with places, and above all with God,” Archimandrite Nicodim Petre told the young participants before the march.

The central destination was Ceahlău Monastery, described as one of Romania’s most unusual Orthodox monastic communities. Set high in the mountains among rocks, it is considered among the country’s highest-altitude monasteries. The monastery was founded in 1992 on the initiative of the future Romanian Patriarch Daniel, while its church was built in 1992–1993. The church was consecrated on August 28, 1993, and the monastery observes two patron feasts: the Feast of the Transfiguration and the commemoration of Saint Stephen the Great.

On the day of the Transfiguration, the monastery held a solemn service attended by hundreds of pilgrims, many of whom made the climb to the monastery on foot along mountain trails.

“The mountain is an image of spiritual ascent. No one reaches the summit without effort,” the bishop said, adding that the journey upward reflects the Christian path—requiring patience, prayer, and inner work.