Photo credit: (c) Sorin BLADA / AGERPRES PHOTO

The place the monastery is located in is one with a special meaning, carrying the efforts of those who dedicated their life to the church and the imprint left by the late priest monk Arsenie Boca.

Raised in a forest clearing in the Retezat Mountains, several dozen kilometres from the town of Hateg, the monastery today is a place of pilgrimage for the Christian Orthodox believers from all over Romania. They are in search for peace of soul, they are suffering hardships, but most of the pilgrims are Romanians who merely wish to pay respects to the grave of priest Arsenie Boca, their saint who has not been declared a saint.

Photo credit: (c) Sorin BLADA / AGERPRES PHOTO

The monastery documents say it was founded by Saint Nikodim, known for having guided and reorganised Romanian monasticism in the second half of the 14th century. Years on, we find here Princess Zamfira, the daughter of Wallachian ruler Moise Voda Basarab of Bucharest. The princess heard of the healing powers of a spring near the monastery and she got well after having drunk from its water. In sign of gratitude, Zamfira restored the monastery’s church and its fresco in 1564-1580. That is why she is seen in the history of the monastery as the second founder of Prislop. She is also buried there.

Prislop Monastery, however, also saw very tough times. It was set on fire in 1762 on an order from General Burlow, who thus sought to punish the Orthodox monks who denied embracing the Greek Catholic faith. In the autumn of 1948, the Metropolitan Bishop of Ardeal Nicolae Balan decided to restore the monastery, which again became Orthodox as it had been for 350 years. Priest monk Arsenie Boca is the one chosen by Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae to bring the monastery back to life. As there were no monks, the monastery was turned into a nuns’ monastery.

Together with the first Mother Superior of Prislop Monastery, Mother Zamfira Constantinescu, priest Arsenie Boca began the work he had been sent there for. He reinforced the hill near the church by planting fir-trees and pines and four years later the wood-and-stone belfry was raised.

The church restoration works began in 1955 and spanned several years, during which time a new rood screen and the necessary furniture were made. The outer walls and the roof were repaired, the nave and altar were plastered up and the flooring was changed. Two new houses were built and electricity was installed. Five icons made by priest Arsenie Boca, deemed the third founder of the monastery, adorn the church rood screen.

Photo credit: (c) Sorin BLADA / AGERPRES PHOTO

However, the efforts made at the small church in the Retezat were not approved of and then-communist Romanian state leadership decided the monastery should disappear. As a result, the buildings in Prislop got a different destination in 1960 and were turned into an elderly home.

It will be as late as in 1976 that Prislop Monastery again becomes what it had been once, as the nuns here continue taking good care of the places and keep the objects of religious value.

Prislop Monastery has several special days over a year. Besides its two patron saints: May 8 — Saint John the Evangelist, September 14 — The Day of the Cross, also celebrated at the monastery are the days of September 13 — Saint John of Prislop, November 28 — when priest Arsenie Boca is remembered and December 26 — the Day of Saint Nikodim. The faithful come in pilgrimage to the monastery on those days in large numbers, more than ten thousand, according to the authorities.

Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES PHOTO

As such, the natural question is that whether a new church in Prislop Monastery is necessary. A firm answer is difficult to give, taking into account both the high number of the believers who come to the monastery in pilgrimage and the plans that priest Arsenie Boca made.

This summer, Mother Superior Pavelida Munteanu was so kind as to talk to us, only as her busy schedule allowed her. According to her, a new church can be raised at Prislop, but the concept of a whole ensemble that priest Arsenie Boca had when he had devised the place arrangement must also be taken into account. The important thing, the Mother Superior said, is that people should come to the monastery with the thought of repairing their mistakes, to pray and ponder and love the beautiful things, because as the priest put it: “Beauty is God”.

“People must come here with the wish to change their lives, from evil to good. We must put ourselves in agreement with God’s will. Priest Arsenie Boca was asking us to correct our life towards what’s good. This should be the purpose of those who come here, to know the true path of meeting Our Lord Jesus Christ. To leave the evil deeds behind and correct their life as is God’s will. This is the best thing”, such is the teaching word of Mother Superior Pavelida Munteanu. AGERPRES