Evidences of Romanian spirituality and artistic gift
The celebrations that will mark two thousand years since the birth of Jesus Christ the Saviour make us think not only of the beginnings and continuity of the Christian life on Romanian lands but also of the role the Church has played in the cultural, artistic and even national-political life of the people here. The subject of this CD-ROM makes me put down several thoughts about the worship places which were founded and bequeathed on us - as sacred heritage - by our great forerunners - rulers, high functionaries, lay priests and monks or faithful peasants - whom God assumed unto him long ago.
It is known that the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ in the Holy Land was furthered by His Apostles all over the world known at that time. St Apostle Andrew, the first called to mission, preached Christ also among our Geto-Dacian ancestors living on the Western shore of the Pontus Euxinus, in the territories between the Danube and the Black Sea that is. It must have been there that the first worship places too, emerged, unassuming, improvised in the homes of some of the people baptized unto Christ. But, after AD 313, when Emperor Constantine the Great granted freedom to the Christendom through the known Edict of Mediolanum, a steady drive started for the building of durable, stone and masonry worship places, that would last through centuries. That explains the building in the 4th-6th centuries of over 35 paleo-Christian basilicas in the territories between the Danube and the Sea, that after AD 297 came to be known as the province of Scythia Minor.
In the other parts of the Romanian land of today, some of the public buildings in the former Roman province of Dacia were turned into Christian worship places soon after the withdrawal of the Roman army and administration. That is what happened at Slaveni - Olt county, Moigrad - Salaj county (ancient Porolissum). Noteworthy in this respect is the former funeral monument at Densus, near Roman Sarmizegetusa, which was turned into a Christian worship place soon after AD 271-275 and has remained so to this day, impressing everybody with its architecture. Christian basilicas dating from the 5th-6th centuries are known at Sucidava (now Celei-Corabia) and Morisena (now Cenad-Timis county). Later ones are known at Dinogetia-Garvan and Niculitel, in northern Dobrogea, to say nothing of the small churches carved in mountain ridges at Basarabi, near Constanta, in the Buzau mountains, in Salaj county, at Butuceni, on the Dnestr, or the ruins of 9th-13th centuriesΓÇÖ churches at Dabaca (Cluj county), at Cetateni (Arges county) and in other parts.
Then, the emergence of the first polities on the whole Romanian geographic and ethnic area was a remarkable drive for building churches and monasteries, many of which have lived to this day. Let us mention from among them the Sanicoara Church, later on the Princely Church in Curtea de Arges, built under Basarab, the founding father, the monasteries of Vodita and Tismana founded by Nicodim, the monk come from across the Danube, with the assistance of the countryΓÇÖs rulers, Cozia, the great foundation of Prince Mircea the Old, who would then rest in peace there and be remembered for ever, the monasteries of Cotmeana and Snagov. Other ones, documented in the 14th century, no longer stand.
In Moldavia, the land of Princes Bogdan and Musat, the series of great princely foundations started with the St Nicholas Church in Radauti, to continue with the monasteries of Neamt, Bistrita, Probota, Humor, Capriana across the Prut, and a number of churches in towns and villages, among which we should mention the Mirauti Church in Suceava, the repository of the relics of St John New, brought there by Prince Alexandru the Kind. His nephew, Stephen the Great and Saint, would inaugurate a new stage of building in the Romanian arts history, with wonderful worship places founded at Putna, Voronet, Razboieni, Dobrovat, Patrauti, Tazlau, Suceava, Iashi, Neamt, Vaslui, Botosani, Dorohoi, Reuseni and many others. It is under his rule that a new style emerged in the Romanian architecture, called "Moldavian style", which would add to the Byzantine style known all over the Orthodox world also Gothic elements and Romanian vernacular features.
On speaking of the medieval Romanian art, one thinks of the great princely foundations mentioned here as also of the ones that followed, even more resplendent, in the next centuries. But, along with these remarkable monuments of art there were also hundreds of other worship places in medieval Transylvania, raised with the material contribution of Romanian lords, priests, faithful peasants or pious monks. Only few Romanian monasteries existed there, which is understandable since there were no Romanian rulers or great noblemen to associate their names with a certain foundation. However, in the 13th-15th centuries, several monasteries were founded, such as those at Rameti (Alba county), Prislop (Hunedoara county), that are still standing, Peri in Maramures, later on at Vad and Feleac (Cluj county) as well as those in Banat: Hodos - Bodrog, Partos, Sredistea Mica, Varadia, etc. Adding to those are the wonderful ducal churches at Streisangeorgiu, Strei, Santamaria Orlea, Ostrov, Pesteana, Sanpetru, all in the Hateg land, Gurasada and Lesnic, near Deva, Criscior and Rabnita near Brad, Santimbru and Geoagiu in Alba county, Seghiste in Bihor or the St Nicholas Church in Scheii Brasovului, a genuine symbol of the Romanian unity. All of them are evidences of the ancestral faith and also of the Romanian continuity in the intra-Carpathian territories.
The 16th and 17th centuries represented the climax of the Romanian medieval art. Worth mentioning in Walachia are especially the monasteries of Dealu, founded by Radu the Great, and, a few years later, the greatest achievement of the post-Byzantine art, the foundation of Prince Neagoe Basarab at Curtea de Arges, blessed by ecumenical patriarch Teolipt, in 1517. Adding to this is the metropolitan church in Targoviste, as well as several foundations of his descendants, including Radu Paisie, Mircea the Shepherd and Michael the Brave; as for the noblemen, we cannot omit the Craiovesti brothers, with the monasteries of Bistrita, Brancoveni, Sadova, Strehaia, as well as the later foundations of Calui, Gura Motrului, Stanesti, Bucovat, all of them in Oltenia.
In Moldavia, the constructive traditions of the Stephen the Great era would be resumed by Petru Rares, who founded the monasteries of Moldovita, Probota, that became a princely tomb, the Episcopal cathedral of Roman, churches in Suceava, Harlau, Botosani and in other parts. It was under his rule that started also the exterior painting of some of them - Voronet, Humor, Moldovita - that would impart originality to the Romanian art. In the latter half of the century, Alexandru Lapusneanu would found the monastery of Slatina, he would remake Alexandru the KindΓÇÖs Bistrita, and his wife, Ruxandra, would raise the Precista Mare Church in Roman. By the centuryΓÇÖs end, Prince Petru the Lame founded Galata in Iashi, and the Movila family - princes Ieremia and Simion and Metropolitan Gheorghe - the Sucevita monastery, the last big princely foundation decorated with exterior paintings.
In Moldavia, the series of the great foundations of the 17th century started with the Dragomirna Monastery, near Suceava, built by the scholar metropolitan Anastasie Crimca, and the Secu Monastery, founded by minister Nestor Ureche and his wife Mitrofana. The centuryΓÇÖs major founder, Prince Vasile Lupu, built the St Three Hierarchs Monastery in Iashi, with the churchΓÇÖs wonderful carved decoration, where St Pious ParaschivaΓÇÖs relics would be placed, as well as churches in Galati, Orhei, Chilia Noua, Stelea in Targoviste. By the centuryΓÇÖs end, Gheorghe Duca built the Cetatuia Monastery near Iashi.
In Walachia, other two princes dominated the 17th century with their foundations: Matei Basarab, then Constantin Brancoveanu. The former, considered to be the most outstanding founder of worship places, besides Stephen the Great, raised the monasteries of Arnota, in Valcea Mts, Caldarusani, north of Bucharest, Strehaia in Oltenia, the Cathedral in Buzau and a number of parish churches in Bucharest, Targoviste, Pitesti, Craiova, and he also remade older places. Martyr Prince Constantin Brancoveanu had a place for eternal rest built for himself at Hurezi, with several hermitages and chapters, as well as churches at Potlogi, Mogosoaia, St Sava, St John the Greek and St George New, all of them in Bucharest. He also restored the most important worship places founded by princes who preceded him. He did not forget the Transylvanian Romanians either, for whom he built the churches in Fagaras and Ocna Sibiului, and especially the Monastery at Sambata de Sus. From his relativesΓÇÖ foundations, let us mention the ones belonging to spatharus Mihai Cantacuzino (the monastery of Sinaia and the Coltea Monastery in Bucharest), to spatharus Toma Cantacuzino (the church at Filipestii de Padure). Martyr Metropolitan Antim Ivireanul raised the monastery in Bucharest named after him, which all faithful in the capital know and love.
The period known as "Phanariot", that would dominate the 18th century into 1821, contributed but few princely foundations: the Vacaresti Monastery, raised by Nicolae Mavrocordat, which unfortunately was torn down under the communist regime, the Pantelimon Monastery by Grigorie II Ghica, the St Spiridon Old Church, raised by Constantin Mavrocordat, and the St Spiridon New one by Scarlat Ghica - all of them in Bucharest. At the beginning of the 19th century, a few monks and nuns built smaller monasteries and hermitages: Cocos and Taita in Dobrogea, Pasarea and Ciorogarla near Bucharest, Ghighiu near Ploiesti, Lainici in the mountain pass with the same name, Stanisoara near Calimanesti and other ones. In Moldavia, we should mention the Frumoasa Monastery in Iashi, restored by Grigorie II Ghica, Varatec, built by mother Olimpiada and confessor Iosif, and a number of hermitages: Pocrov, Vovidenia, Sihastria, or the ones across the river Prut: Harbovat, Harjanca, Hancu, Dobrusa, Suruceni and many other ones. Unfortunately, in Transylvania, all Orthodox monasteries and hermitages were destroyed on orders by Austrian general Nicolae Adolf Bukow: only the ones in Banat went on with their life of work and prayer.
In the 19th century, especially in the wake of the 1863 Secularization Law, these wonderful foundations would be replaced by a number of episcopal cathedrals and parish churches. Romanian monasticism would be revived only after 1918, only to be suppressed again, by the communist regime this time. It would be brought back to life again after 1989, so the Orthodox Church has come to count today over four hundred monastic settlements across the country.
In this long period of existence of an organized monastic life, the Romanian monasteries meant something special for the Romanian nation and for the Romanian spirituality generally. The Romanian monasteries made of this land a holy one, a country of great cultural-artistic values, a country of prayer and love for the nation and for everything that is beautiful. It was in these monasteries that monks lived special lives, venerated by the people and then cannonized by the Church. In all monasteries, the monks and nuns knew how to always blend work and prayer, for themselves but also for their beloved ones who remained out, "in the world". The monasteriesΓÇÖ annual festivals attracted thousands of faithful from the neighbouring villages, together with their priests, so they helped enhancing the faith of the peasant devouts of yore.
In the monasteries in Walachia and Moldavia there lived thousands of Transylvanian monks, chased away from their own country by the temporary rulers belonging to other kins and faiths. So, they too, helped consolidating the awareness of Romanian national unity.
But the Romanian monasteries were more than just places of prayer and elated spiritual life, lived by the Gospel and by the rules of the great organizers of the monastic life. They were also remarkable cultural establishments. It was there that were copied so many liturgical manuscripts, patristic and post-patristic texts, first in Slavonic then in Romanian, by famous calligraphers and even some priors, like Gavril Uric of the Neamt Monastery in the earlier half of the 15th century, followed by the great copyists of Stephen the GreatΓÇÖs era, at the Neamt and Putna Monasteries. From the next century on, the first Romanian printing presses would be accommodated in monasteries, at Dealu, Plumbuita, Campulung, Govora, Three Hierarchs or in the precincts of the cathedral-monasteries at Targoviste, Alba Iulia and Iashi, as well as at the Neamt Monastery, early in the 19th century. It was in monasteries that the first Romanian schools were set up, where young monks or children from neighbouring villages were educated, as well as the first "high schools", such as the college at the St Three Hierarchs Monastery in Iashi and, later on, the first schools that trained clergymen, like those at Putna, Antim in Bucharest, Socola and Neamt.
It was in monasteries that were founded the first social assistance establishments, the so-called bolnita /hospital/, at Neamt, Putna, Cozia, Dragomirna, and later on the monastic hospitals at Coltea, Pantelimon in Bucharest, Precista Mare in Roman, St Spiridon in Iashi, Proorocul Samuil in Focsani, and so many other ones.
It was also in the monasteries that thrived the art of fresco and icon painting, the wood and stone carving, and, in nunneries - the embroidery. The interior and especially exterior paintings of some of the monasteries carried the fame of these establishments around the world, and icons painted by monks of yore are still commanding the admiration of so many visitors of the big museums arranged in the precincts of some of them.
Aid was sent from the Romanian monasteries to "the holy places" of other nations, to Mount Athos, to the four "Apostolic" patriarchies in Constantinople, EgyptΓÇÖs Alexandria, SyriaΓÇÖs Antioch and Jerusalem, to Meteore, to Mount Sinai, to continental Greece and the Greek islands, to the South-Danubian Slav countries, helping the salvation of the Orthodox spirituality and even the existence of some Orthodox peoples threatened and subdued by the Crescent. At the same time, in the monasteries of Walachia and Moldavia there lived also Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Serb monks, and even Jews converted to the Orthodox faith, so that they became genuine inter-Orthodox centers or even ecumenical ones.
So, the Romanian monasteries were famous as centers of spiritual, cultural, artistic, social, national and ecumenical life. They call us even today to prayer, but every one of them can stand for a genuine lesson in history, a chapter in the nationΓÇÖs and ChurchΓÇÖs bimillenary history. They are ours, they belong to everyone, being founded by our ancestors, so we have to love and value them, but also make others know them as well. That is how we can pay our tribute to those who founded them and bequeathed them on us.
