Stanoaia was a very beautiful woman. People called her Stanoaia because of her husband’s family name: Stan. His family was a very rich Romanian family from Dorna Arini, Suceava County. Stanoaia and her husband, Dumitru, built a beautiful house on the Eagle Hill, right near the forest. In time they bought the entire land from their home on top of the hill until down at the bottom, where Bistrita River was (and still is) flowing. In the river there was a black rock (and still is) stuck in the middle of the tumultuous water.
Stanoaia and her husband were very hardworking people. They had many cattle, so they barely had any free time, working from dawn to dusk. Every spring, after the Easter holidays, Stanoaia remained home to care for children and the house, while Dumitru, her husband, went in the mountains with their sheep, their cattle, horses and other livestock.
So in one spring, Dumitru left Stanoaia and went to Giumalau Mountain with his animals and the people working for him. The sun was hot, the weather was warm and the grass was fresh and green, perfect for both animals and people.
Days passed by and the woman didn’t get any news from her husband. Only when autumn came around and other shepherds came home, she started to worry. Her husband was never so late. She started to ask around, but no one knew anything. It was like Dumitru and his people simply vanished.
Every evening, heartbroken, the woman would go down in the valley, near the black rock stuck in the middle of the river, and would pray to Holy Mary for her husband. She would light a candle, watched the shores and just pray.
Many nights passed by and nothing new happened.
Then, one evening, when the snow started to fall, she saw something. Someone was on the other side of the river, trying to cross it, going straight for the light of her candle. Dumitru, Dumitru! she shouted.
The man waved at her and finally reached the shore on her side. It was indeed her husband. But he was sick and weak. She took him home and cared for him, thanking the Holy Mary for her help. He suffered a head injury and didn’t remember very well what happened. However, he recalled an attack on him and his people. Someone hit him in the head with a bat and left him for dead.
When he woke up, all of his people were dead or missing. He didn’t even know who he was. He wondered the forest for many days until he saw a light on the shore of the river. The rock within the river seemed familiar, so he just went straight to it until he heard a woman calling him.
This is how he found his way back to her.
After a few weeks he made a full recovery. He was lucky to still be alive, so every Saturday they would get down on the shore, light a candle near the rock and thank Holy Mary for their reunion.
Hundreds of years passed since then, but people still call the black rock Stanoaia’s Rock, because it was the place where the woman prayed for her husband’s return.
The legend was first written in Romanian by mister Gheorghe Vicol, from Vatra Dornei.
