Saharna Monastery
The Saharna Monastery ( Romanian Mănăstirea Saharna ) is a monastery of the Moldavian Orthodox Church founded in 1776 in Rezina Rajon in the northeast of the Republic of Moldova . Caves Christian hermits in rocky valley behind on the bank of Nistru nearby Trinity monastery there were probably since the 13th century. Today's monastery and a ritual bathing place outside in the valley are popular pilgrimage destinations.
location
Coordinates: 47 ° 41 ′ 42 " N , 28 ° 57 ′ 56" E
.JPG)
The Saharna Monastery is located on the right (western) bank of the Nistru (Ukrainian Dniester) eight kilometers south of the town of Rezina, which is separated from Rîbnița on the Transnistrian side by the Nistru . The road coming from Rezina runs in the valley on the river bank to the village of Saharna. The 200 to 300 meter wide shoreline in this area is bordered on the Moldovan side by a 200 meter high, wooded steep slope, which merges into the extensive, flat, undulating agricultural landscape typical of the north of the country. Except for small islands with low deciduous trees and bushes, fields with grain and sunflowers predominate. A few 100 meters north of the group of houses in Saharna, the short access road to the monastery branches off, which lies in a narrow, water-rich side valley. Such side valleys of the Nistru and the Răut have offered natural retreats for hermits since the late Middle Ages and later for the construction of monasteries. There were caves in limestone cliffs, in the vicinity of which monasteries were founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, except in Saharna, among other places at the neighboring monastery Țipova to the south , at the monastery Călărăşeuca further north on the Nistru and in Orheiul Vechi on the Răut.
The flat bank area ends a few kilometers south of Saharna and the range of hills immediately reaches the river bank. The road turns west at the place Saharna and after 1.5 kilometers leads through the somewhat larger place Saharna Nouă and on to the R20 road, which connects Rezina with Orhei . The two monasteries Saharna and Țipova can only be reached on the road in a wide arc via the R20. Without a continuous path, the direct route between Saharna and the waterfall in the valley of Țipova is around ten kilometers. The next village south of Saharna on the Nistru is Buciuşca, 5.5 kilometers away. In the 2004 census, there were 397 inhabitants in the old town of Saharna and 964 in the Saharna Nouă settlement founded in 1939.
The jagged valley of the monastery and the adjacent hills form a 670 hectare nature reserve. The Saharna stream flows through the valley, which stretches a few kilometers to the west to the largest village in the area, Echimăuţi (2247 inhabitants), and forms an idyllic green landscape with the smaller watercourses flowing to it, with 22 small waterfalls on limestone terraces are counted. Locals call the area izvorul minunilor ("wonderland of springs"). Liverworts have settled in damp places , otherwise field maple , sycamore maple , elm , hazelnut bushes and other bushes and shrubs thrive in the deciduous forests . The highest rock visible from the village is called Grimidon. At its head, pilgrims venerate St. Mary at a chapel built there. The special landscape, comparable to the valley of Țipova, gave rise to the legend that people could disappear here without a trace in the morning mist.
history
.jpg)
According to archaeological finds near the village of Echimăuţi, settlers of the Cucuteni-Tripolje culture operated on the Nistru between the 5th and 3rd millennium BC. Cattle breeding and agriculture with the pickaxe. The settlements were laid out in a circle and consisted of over 90 houses. Over 500 finds from pre-Christian times, including rock paintings, have been collected around the Grimidon rock.
The rock caves were probably inhabited by Christian hermits since the 13th century. The place Saharna appears by name in a document by the Moldovan prince and national hero Ștefan cel Mare from 1495. No news is known about Saharna for the 16th century. According to a document from 1602, the Moldovan voivode Ieremia Movilă approved that after the death of an administrative officer ( voric ) of Saharna, who was called Bucium, his widow Antemia and her son may keep a third of the land. On March 23, 1733, the place Saharna became the property of Constantin Hrisoverghi.
According to legend, a monk saw a glowing figure of St. Mary standing on the Grimidon rock. When the monk had climbed the rock, he noticed a footprint in the rock, over which there is now a small chapel next to a cross. Maria is said to have shown the place for the monastery complex from the Grimidon rock. The monk whose name is associated with this miracle is called Bartolomeu Ciungu (or Varfolomei Crivorucico, 1739–1798). When Bartholomew came to Saharna, he found an empty place where he founded the monastery. As can be seen from an inscription under a mural in the refectory of the monastery, Bartolomew was the son of a priest from the city of Sawran, now in the Ukraine, and had left his hometown in 1766. Presumably he lived in the caves with a small community of like-minded people until his epiphany.
The first wooden church of today's Trinity Monastery ( Mănăstirea Sănta Treime ) was built in 1776. In the following decades, the monastery grew through donations of land. From 1818 to 1821, today's Dreifaltigkeitskirche was built as a summer church (main church). The inauguration ceremony probably took place under the direction of Metropolitan Veniamin Costache (1768-1846) from the Vaslui district. In 1837 the iconostasis was renewed. The smaller Church of the Nativity was built as a winter church in 1883. In June 1884, the monastery received a water mill from the Horodişte hermitage for a rent of 25 rubles per year. The monastery grew wheat, corn, barley and beans for profit. By 1904 the number of monks rose to 20. Eugenia Apostolopulo-Bogdan (1857-1915) was a wealthy patron who built a primary school and the Archangel Michael Church in Saharna and promoted viticulture in the area. Thanks to his financial donations, the monastery could be renovated. He was well acquainted with the Russian writer and philosopher Vasily Vasilyevich Rosanov , who visited the monastery in 1913.
After 1918 the monastery was converted into a nunnery and the name of the monastery was changed to Regina Maria , in honor of the Romanian Queen Regina Maria a României . 70 nuns now lived in the monastery, which reached its economic boom in the following years up to 1950. At the time of the Moldovan SSR , religious practice was suppressed. Like the other monasteries in the country, the Saharna Monastery was closed in 1964, the inventory of the churches was destroyed and the entire complex was converted into a psychiatric clinic. Only after the establishment of the independent state of Moldova could the monastery be reopened on April 19, 1991 as a monastery under the direction of the archimandrite Adrian Baciu. The summer church was restored between 1992 and 1998 and the winter church between 2005 and 2010. Today 20 people live in the monastery.
Monastery complex
From the entrance gate, the gently sloping path first reaches the smaller winter church. The simple rectangular building consists of a main room with a new wooden iconostasis on the east side. The walls are unpainted, no remains of older paintings have survived. Skulls and bones are exhibited behind glass in a niche in the north wall. The higher summer church has a square bell tower above the entrance, a smaller octagonal tower above the crossing , a semicircular apse and transepts that protrude only a little from the side walls. The walls were completely repainted during the recent renovation. A shrine is particularly venerated by pilgrims. The Trinity Church serves as a Sunday church for the residents of Saharna, Saharna Nouă and Buciuşca. Baptisms, weddings and memorial rituals ( panhidide ) take place here.
While many valuable icons were lost when the monastery was closed in 1964, the monastery still has a few icons from the 18th and 19th centuries. The monastery houses the remains of Father Makarios of Saharna (Macarie Tincu, 1888-1969), who was abbot of the monastery and was canonized in 1995. The monastery includes several residential and auxiliary buildings, a refectory next to the winter church and another chapel, all of which are surrounded by flower gardens. The monks plant grain, vegetables and grapes on ten hectares of arable land.
The upper exit of the monastery leads to the former monk's caves on a rock face in the densely wooded valley. The walls of the abandoned, dark caves are hung with images of saints, in front of which pilgrims place wish lists. On the way to the caves a ritual bathing place was created, the basin of which is fed by a watercourse from a side valley. Men and women descend into the cold water. It is considered particularly meritorious and beneficial to health if the head is submerged 3, 7, 9, 12 or 40 times.
literature
- Frieder Monzer, Timo Ulrichs: Moldova. With Chișinău, all of Bessarabia and Transdnestria . Trescher, Berlin 2013, pp. 168f
Web links
- Sfânta Mănăstire Saharna. (Website of the monastery, Romanian)
- Saharna Monastery . moldovaholiday.travel
- Manastirea Saharna . CrestinOrtodox.ro (Romanian)
- Saharna, raionul Rezina . moldovenii.md (Romanian)
- Mănăstirea Saharna . moldovenii.md (Romanian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saharna, raionul Rezina. moldovenii.md (Romanian)
- ↑ Saharna Nouă, raionul Rezina. moldovenii.md (Romanian)
- ↑ Echimăuţi, raionul Rezina . moldovenii.md (Romanian)
- ↑ Magnificence of the nature in Saharna. World of Moldova
- ↑ Saharna, raionul Rezina. moldovenii.md (Romanian)
- ^ Brad Olsen: Sacred Places Europe: 108 Destinations. Consortium of Collective Consciousness, San Francisco 2007, p. 151
- ↑ Manastirea Saharna . CrestinOrtodox.ro (Romanian)
- ↑ Pari Tele Macarie de la Saharna. CrestinOrtodox.ro (Romanian)
- ↑ Frieder Monzer, Timo Ulrichs, 2013, p. 169