Presidential election video reporting 2025. How the election is welcomed in the known place in Romania, where a saint was canonized, after years of pilgrimages

In the heart of the Retezat Mountains, near the Prislop Monastery, there is a community devoted to the values ​​of Orthodox faith and tradition. People are united around the figure of Father Arsenie Boca, who this year is celebrated as a saint in the Orthodox calendar. Now, they are now in front of a new choice: the one that the rest of the Romanians must do, on May 4, when the first round of the presidential elections takes place. At the end of a campaign, in which the faith was often in the foreground, the people from Silvașu de Sus talk about their expectations from these elections.

“The upper ones forgot about the upper one,” says an old woman, in a hurry by the noise of the bells, on the way to the Prislop Monastery. We are in the village of Silvaşu de Sus, in Hunedoara county, in the epicenter of most of the Orthodox pilgrimages in Romania.

Here, at the Prislop Monastery, the tomb of Father Arsenie Boca, who was canonized holy by the Orthodox Church. Considered one of the great personalities of the Romanian Orthodoxy, his tomb has become, since 1989, the year in which he died, one of the most popular pilgrimage places in Romania.

“The parties that are now believing in the good God,” continues the old woman at the foot of the hills of Prislop, before starting, with his cane, on the 3 -kilometer serpentines, to the monastery.

“Faith is Romania's only chance. Faith remained,” says another man in the village. With this thought he will vote at the elections this weekend and with the same thought he voted last year.

We want to find out what expectations the people in this community have from the future president of Romania and how to see here the electral campaigns of the candidates in the presidential elections.

The united community in faith

Around the Prislop monastery a solidarity community, united by faith in God, formed. Although the monastery attracts thousands of visitors, the infrastructure remains deficient, the public services are minimal – not all have asphalt in front of the court, water, sewerage – so people feel abandoned by those who make decisions for them.

For the people around the prislop, the vote seems like a gesture of resignation rather than a reliable one. A kind of moral obligation in a system in which they no longer feel represented.

In the elections of November 2024, Marcel Ciolacu was, with 21%, the winner of the election in Haţeg, the city of which Silvaşu de Sus belongs. Very close, with 20%, on the second place was Călin Georgescu, and in the third place – Elena Lasconi, with 17%.

“People are disappointed and because there were some things that did not have to happen. For example, we went together last year, PNL-PSD, after which we broke our roads again and started to swim. And now we have to repair these problems.

He believes that people should realize that only “stability” is likely to develop the community.

How did the Prislop develop

His argument: Gas, water and sewerage projects are financed through the National Investment Program “Anghel Saligny”, while the European Union “gives us money for green energy, when we still have infrastructure problems”.

The pilgrimages of the last 20 years have visibly developed the community. The ordinary locals with the quiet rhythm of the mountain life have found a meaning in receiving those who arrive here for healing or just for peace.

In the village and in the surroundings there were pensions, restaurants and other small local businesses, flower and silver icons and icons, religious books, handmade products and other souvenirs.

In a landscape that would otherwise have risked depopulation, religious tourism has given a new meaning to the life of the community. Only in the courtyard of the monastery are three places where you can buy myrrh, calendars, bracelets, brochures and books. It can also be paid by card. “There is a lot of money here,” a local remarks. “But the man gives them dearly, it is worth it,” she continues.

But the success of the trade stimulated by the faith of the guests has further fragile the connection between the people of the place and their leaders. “One's greatest virtue is to believe in God and confess,” says a man who has several icons on his car. “If each of us listened to Radio Trinitas, Romania would change,” he believes. “You somehow make these words to come to the top, to see the life at the bottom level,” he complements his partner.

“Something changes only if they are afraid of God”

HotNews.ro reporters did not have the agreement of Father Nestor, the bishop of Deva and Hunedoara, to talk to the men of the monastery even near the Easter. However, we were allowed to explore, like any other believer, the place where Arsenie Boca has lived for the past few years.

After more than 20 years in which Christians came here to deal with worldly problems more easily, the Prislop Monastery now seems a true resort of spirituality.

Parking has three levels and a special place for coaches. There is also a guard service contracted by the monastery.

The hierarchs of the place promote a public collection for the erection of another church right next to the one already built. Above, at Father Arsenie's grave, the place looks like an improvised flower. Above all, candles and flowers.

“I have my husband on the deathbed,” a lady tells us on the way to the place. Hundreds of thousands of people have come to pray in the grave of Arsenie Boca in recent years and hope that a miracle will happen to them. “It is said that he has done paranormal things”, “does divine miracles”, “Father Arsenie is the Holy Says” – this is how the locals from Silvau de Sus describe the former monk.

They expect politicians to follow their example and be closer to the holy ones. “I do not know if I really believe, because they are uprising in Bucharest to occupy only one place for them,” says an old woman. And the way she understands the actions of the politicians rather confuse her: “We do not know where to choose. They come here to take pictures, but you cannot know which of them to choose,” the woman continues. “I think something changes only if they are afraid of God,” a man adds.

In a Romania in which trust in the political class seems to erode from one choice to another, Prislop becomes not only a place of prayer, but also a symbol of the break between the people and the leaders. People who believe in miracles, but do not believe in promises.