Dedication day: "Equals to the Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena" - 21 may.
Location: The Commune of Salistea, the County of Alba.
Directions:

• Highway: Take DN7 Sebes (E60) - then after 10 km turn left, and drive to Pianu de Sus (10 km) - then drive another 5 km to Strungari until you reach the Afteia Monastery (5 km);

• Highway: Take DN7 Sebes (E60) - then turn left, take DL, and drive to Tartaria (2 km) - Salistea (3 km). Railroad Sebes.

Situated in the Valley of Archius, at a distance of approximately twenty-two kilometers from the commune of Salistea, the monastery came into being in the second half of the 16^th century. It was constructed on the location of an earlier monastic establishment that had perished in time and that had been called the “Volnkarhis”.
At the beginning of its existence, the monastery was known as “Sihastria (The Hermitage) of Plaisor”, and the dedication day was the “Nativity of the Birthgiver of God”, whereas in the following century it was known as “Sihastria Afteia” or “The Monastery of Cioara”, in fact being a metochia of the Cozia Monastery in Walachia.
In the middle of the 18^th century, the monastery was headed by Venerable Sophonios the Confessor. By family tradition, he came from a priestly background: his father, Father Ioan, had been the parish priest of the village between 1680 and 1720, and subsequently Father Stan, his son, took over the parish and served there between 1720 and 1750; in 1750, the latter took religious vows and entered the monastic life under the name of Sopfronios, being appointed as father hegumen of the Afteia Monastery between 1750 and 1761. It was in this period of time that the holy establishment became one of the most important centres of Orthodox culture and spirituality, which safeguarded the ancient faith of our forefathers.
Worthy of note is the fact that Venerable Sophronios was at the head of the Romanian movement of 1759-1761. Afterwards, Venerable Sophronios retired to the Robaia Monastery, then to the Vierosi Monastery, and eventually he settled at the Arges Monastery.
Although the Afteia Monastery was pulled down in the year 1778, some remnants of its components were recuperated and used for the construction of the present-day wooden church building, which is located in the village of Salistea. Inside the monastery, numerous vestiges of the earlier monastic establishment have been preserved in reverence of its sacred history.
The old monastic tradition of the holy place was revived in 1975, when the present-day monastery was re-established. In recent years, a monastic chapel and a house that incorporates several monastic cells have been added to the group of buildings within the monastery grounds.