Photo credit: (c) Paul BUCIUTA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The monastery entered a new historical stage in 1498, when ruler Stephen the Great built a one-storey belfry with a small chapel dedicated to St John the New of Suceava, the mural painting, preserved until today, being of a great artistic and iconographic value.

In 1546, Peter Rares rebuilt the surrounding walls of the monastery and the entrance tower, erected a new princely house next to the ruins of the first founder’s home, and ‘restored the holy monastery from scratch’, as according to a document from 1546. He also endowed the monastery with the Mojesti village. Eight years later, ruler Alexander the Good completely rebuilt the monastery.

The Bistrita Monastery has a special historical and archaeological value, having been built in the Byzantine style, with rich ornaments. The original front door is still well-preserved until today.

Highly remarkable is the icon of Saint Anne, given as a present to Lady Anne, the wife of ruler Alexander the Good, in 1401, by Empress Irene, the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and Patriarch Matei of Constantinople. Later, the princely family donated the icon to the Bistrita Monastery. In the 18th century, the icon was restored and in 1853 it was placed in a pew made out of carved wood covered in gold, donated by Hieromonk Varnava, the Abbot of the Pangarasi Monastery, who was cured here of a serious disease, as the medallion above the icon tells the story.

The main building of the Monastery is square-shaped, being surrounded by a 4 to 6 metres high stone wall with battlements. The entrance to the monastery is made through a canopy tower, with a chapel devoted to St Nicholas built upstairs by Peter Rares, between 1541 and 1546. The wall also had a defence role, having been rebuilt in 1776 by Abbot Iacov the Archimandrite.

In the north-eastern wing of the church there is the Belfry Tower built by ruler Stephen the Great, in 1498. In the churchyard there is also the royal house of Alexander the Good, restored by Peter Rares, alongside one row of monks’ cells from the 18th century.

The Bistrita Monastery is the place where one of the oldest monuments of the Romanian medieval culture, the diptych of the Bistrita Monastery, can be found. The diptych offers the most interesting data about the beginning of the voivodal history and the beginning of the church history in Moldavia. Started, continued and concluded at this monastery, including the names of rulers and their family members, bishops, archimandrites, monks, donors, high dignitaries, scribes, governors, boyars and soldiers who fell on the battlefield at Podul Inalt, this document is, without any doubt, a historiographical work of a great importance for the history of Moldavia. The first entry in the diptych was the date of 6915 (the year 1407, when the diptych began to be written at the Bistrita Monastery).

Photo credit: (c) Paul BUCIUTA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The introduction includes general considerationS about mercy and salvation, followed by the listing of the benefactors of the monastery, which list had to be approved first by ‘the abbot with counsel from all the other brothers in Christ.’ Then follows the list of the godly rulers of Moldovlahia’.

The diptych was written by more than one person, which was proved by the various handwriting styles it shows. Thus, two pages and a half, where the rulers until Stephen the Great are listed, are written in one style and then follows a series of other different styles.

Although the introductive part has on it the supposed date when they started to write the diptych, the debate over the precise date of this important document was quite vivid, renowned scholars coming up with different hypotheses.

After studying this valuable manuscript, Damian P. Bogdan came to the conclusion that the first three pages were copied during the rule of Stephen the Great after a diptych dated in 1407, which was probably written on wooden boards or painted on the wall behind the table of oblation. Later, the diptych was completed with names and notes, the last one being from 1682.

Starting with 1407, after Dometian became the Abbot of the Neamt and Bistrita Monasteries, the diptych was recopied, completed with new names of rulers, hierarch, monks and believers and translated into Romanian.

No one seems to have ever questioned the place where the diptych was written and neither the authors or the writers of this valuable historiographical document. The document itself says it very clearly that this was — the Bistrita Monastery — the place where the first words were written and also the subsequent completions.

The writers of the diptych didn’t put their names in, but from the content it becomes very clear that they were monks living at the Monastery. For instance, the decision to write in the diptych the names of the founders and donors only after getting the approval of ‘the abbot with counsel from all the other brothers in Christ’ was taken at the Monastery.

The theological considerations on benefaction, reward and salvation, from the introduction, were probably the words of a monk. The correct mentioning of the ranks and titles of the clerks that appear in the diptych — Metropolitan, Bishop, Archimandrite, Abbot, Monk, Hieromonk, Hierodeacon, Confessor, Verger (Grigore), the Ecclesiarch of the Metropolitan — all are proofs that the authors were monks who were familiar with the religious terminology. Moreover, they mentioned famous copyists and miniaturists from the Neamt and Putna Monasteries, such as Gavriil, Paladie and Teodor.

Most probably, this historiographical work was written either in the altar or at the abbot’s place under the abbot’s guidance, either in the anonymous monks’ cells, who had to be scholars back then.

The grave of ruler Alexandru the Good, his wife Anne, of Alexandru, the son of Stephen the Great, and of Chiajna, the wife of Stefan Lacusta and Anastastie, the Bishop of Suceava are to be found in the church of the Bistrita Monastery. AGERPRES