The Strigoi: Romania’s True Vampires

While the world knows Dracula as a fictional creation, Romania has a far older and more complex vampire tradition centered on the strigoi. These undead beings, distinct from the literary vampire, have been feared in Romanian villages for centuries and continue to influence folk practice today.

What Are Strigoi?

Two Types

Strigoi Vii (Living Strigoi)

• Living people born with certain characteristics
• Have red hair, blue eyes, or two hearts
• Born with a caul (amniotic membrane) over the face
• The seventh child of the same gender
• Those who died before baptism and were later revived
• May not know they are strigoi
• Their soul leaves the body at night to torment others

Strigoi Mort (Dead Strigoi)

• Corpses that rise from the grave
• People who died improperly (suicide, murder, unbaptized)
• Those who were strigoi vii in life
• Victims of strigoi attacks
• People cursed or excommunicated
• Bodies over which a cat or other animal jumped

Characteristics

Strigoi are described as:

• Appearing much as they did in life (not monstrous)
• Having red faces and pale skin
• Sometimes bloated from blood consumption
• Possessing long fingernails and hair that continued growing after death
• Having one leg in the grave world and one in ours
• Returning to their families first

Powers and Behavior

Abilities

Strigoi can:

• Drink blood and life force
• Spread disease through communities
• Cause livestock to sicken and die
• Transform into animals (wolves, dogs, cats, bats)
• Pass through walls and locked doors
• Control the weather
• Become invisible
• Hypnotize victims

Behavior Patterns

Strigoi typically:

• Return first to their family home
• Torment relatives and neighbors they knew in life
• Feed on sleeping victims
• Cause nightmares and sleep paralysis
• Drain cattle and sheep
• Spread epidemics
• Sometimes carry on normal activities, appearing alive

Progression

The strigoi danger follows a pattern:

1. First attacks family members
2. Expands to neighbors and village
3. Creates more strigoi from victims
4. Eventually threatens entire regions
5. Must be stopped before the epidemic spreads

Protection and Prevention

Preventing a Corpse from Becoming Strigoi

Burial Practices

• Proper Christian burial is essential
• Candles and prayers during the wake
• Not leaving the body alone before burial
• Placing garlic in the mouth, nostrils, and around the corpse
• Millet seeds in the coffin (the strigoi must count them)
• Thorns or hawthorn placed in the coffin
• A sickle placed across the body
• Facing the corpse downward
• Tying the corpse’s limbs together

For High-Risk Individuals

• Those suspected of becoming strigoi received extra precautions
• Stakes through the heart before burial
• Removal of the heart and burning it
• Cutting off the head
• Burying at crossroads
• Reburial in a different location

Protection for the Living

Personal Protection

• Wearing garlic
• Carrying blessed objects
• Making the sign of the cross
• Smearing garlic juice on windows and doors
• Keeping lights burning through the night
• Not inviting strangers in at night

Home Protection

• Garlic hung at windows and doors
• Hawthorn branches around the property
• Crosses at entrances
• Salt and iron at thresholds
• Keeping animals inside at night

Destroying a Strigoi

Detection

Signs that a corpse has become strigoi:

• Grave shows signs of disturbance
• Body appears bloated or fresh when exhumed
• Blood around the mouth
• Eyes remain open
• Position changed from burial
• Livestock dying in the community
• Dreams of the deceased attacking

Traditional Methods

If a strigoi is identified:

• Exhume the body
• Drive a stake through the heart (ash, oak, or hawthorn)
• Decapitate the corpse
• Burn the heart (or entire body)
• Scatter the ashes
• Pour holy water in the grave
• Rebury face down with a stake through the back
• Place a thorny rose on the chest

Historical Cases

The Plague Years

During epidemics:

• Mass deaths were attributed to strigoi
• Exhumation of suspected vampires was common
• Church records document these events
• The strigoi belief explained contagion

2004 - Marotinu de Sus

In 2004, a documented case occurred:

• Villagers believed Petre Toma had become a strigoi
• They exhumed his body
• Removed and burned his heart
• Drank the ashes mixed with water
• Several participants were prosecuted
• But the practice was not denied - just its legality

Ongoing Practice

Anthropologists document:

• Continued belief in rural Romania
• Protective practices still observed
• Stakes and garlic still used in burials
• Villages where everyone takes precautions

Strigoi vs. Literary Vampires

Key Differences

Appearance

• Strigoi look like regular dead people, not aristocratic strangers
• They return to their own communities
• They’re bloated, not pale and elegant

Social Role

• Strigoi were your neighbors and relatives
• Not exotic foreigners
• The threat comes from within the community

Religion

• Strigoi belief is integrated with Orthodox Christianity
• Not opposed to it
• Protection comes from the church and priests

Origin

• Complex circumstances create strigoi
• Not a single dramatic transformation
• Anyone could become one without choosing to

Cultural Significance

Social Functions

The strigoi belief serves to:

• Explain unexpected deaths and epidemics
• Provide ritual responses to grief
• Reinforce burial customs and Christian practice
• Express anxieties about death and the afterlife
• Maintain community boundaries and norms

Romanian Identity

Strigoi are:

• Part of national folklore heritage
• Distinct from imported vampire fiction
• Studied by Romanian academics
• Preserved in rural communities
• A source of both pride and occasional embarrassment

Tourism

The vampire tradition has led to:

• Dracula tourism in Transylvania
• Less attention to authentic strigoi traditions
• Conflict between commercial vampires and folk beliefs
• Opportunities to preserve genuine folklore

Academic Study

Scholars have documented:

• Regional variations in strigoi belief
• The relationship to other Slavic vampire traditions
• How beliefs changed over centuries
• The clash between folk practice and modern law
• Psychological and sociological functions

Similar Traditions

Slavic Vampires

• Russian upyr
• Serbian vampir (origin of the word “vampire”)
• Polish upiór
• Similar characteristics across the region

Western European Revenants

• English vampire traditions
• German nachzehrer
• Greek vrykolakas

The Living Tradition

In 21st-century Romania:

• Some villages maintain full traditional practices
• Urban Romanians often know the traditions
• Protective measures are taken “just in case”
• The 2004 case showed belief remains active
• Younger generations learn from grandparents

Conclusion

The strigoi represent Romania’s authentic vampire tradition - older, more complex, and more terrifying than the literary vampire that captured Western imagination. These are not romantic aristocrats but your own dead family members returning to drain your life.

In remote Romanian villages, where the Carpathian Mountains loom and old Orthodox churches mark ancient graveyards, the strigoi are not stories. They are dangers that require proper precautions. And when death comes unexpectedly, when the livestock sicken, when nightmares plague the living, some still know what must be done.

The stake, the garlic, the fire. Because some dead don’t stay dead. Not in Romania.