ABSTRACT
The legend of the Arges monastery is a masterpiece of Romanian folklore in poetic form. The usual term for self-sacrifice in feminist literature is supererogation. An action is supererogatory if, first, the agent is morally permitted to refrain from performing it—in other words, it is not his or her duty to perform it—and, second, if the action would be a very good thing when performed. The workplace in the former communist countries and women in patriarchal societies did indeed perform supererogatory actions. But this is a conceptualization of their behavior, an analytical way of looking at them, rather than a real distinction they actually experienced. Like Ana, people in totalitarian systems are bound to do their duties. For them, the distinction between duty and supererogation collapses. Romanian women experienced the sort of training in viewing supererogation as self-sacrifice and duty.
