The 9th of March in the Iulian calendar, the day called by ordinary people Martyrs(Mucenici or Macinici) is the beginning of the agrarian year.
The preparation of the ritual food (the Saints Martyrs, Bradosi) is made only in this day.
In Moldavia the women make the Saints from dough of sponge cake in the shape of 8. They bake them in the oven after they smear them with honey and strew little pieces of nuts on them.
In Dobrudja, the Saints are made in the same shape but smaller. They are boiled in sweeten (with honey or sugar) water. Some people add red wine in the water.

BAKING SAINTS

Ingredients:
1 kg flour, 200 gr sugar, 50 gr yeast, 3 eggs, 100 gr butter or margarine, lemon peel, vanilla powder, rum essence, honey and grinding nut.
- we make the leaven ( the yeast, 2 spoons with sugar, a cup of lukewarm milk )
- we boil 100 ml of milk and the flour is scalded with it (in a 3 l bowl)
- we mix very well 2 eggs, the sugar and the rest of milk with an egg-beater
- in the bowl where we have the flour, we add the leaven, the eggs mixed with sugar and
milk, the essences, the lemon peel and we knead the ingredients
- while we are kneading the ingredients, the butter(margarine) is added; we obtain a downy dough and we let it to rise for 45 minutes
- we tear the dough to pieces, we twist and twine in the shape of 8, we put them in a tray spread with butter or margarine; we swear the saints with yolk using a brush, we put them in the oven (25-30 minutes)
- immediately after we take them out from the oven, we smear them with honey and strew with grinding nuts

BOILED SAINTS

- usually we can buy them but we can use pasta(small shapes)
- we put them to boil in sween water ; when they are already boiled we add cinnamon, ground nut, rum essence and (if you want) red wine

NOTE : the liquid must be sweet enough, with much ground nut, cinnamon and, if you like,
lemon peel