From the 30th of December 2017 to the 2nd of January 2018, over 200 students participated in a winter camp at Putna Monastery. In addition to attending the services, the students visited the monastery, the museum, and the surroundings, sang Christmas carols and conversed with the monastery fathers.
The highlight of their stay at the monastery was the Torchlight Retreat on the evening of the 1st of January 2018. To mark the Centenary of the Great Union of Romania, students climbed the Hill of the Cross next to the monastery and formed the number 100 with their bodies, carrying torches in their hands. They sang the National Anthem and the “Christ is Risen” troparion. Then they descended to the sound of patriotic songs, walked through the center of Putna town and entered the monastery precincts.
Archimandrite Melchisedec Velnic, the Abbot, and the monastic community, greeted them in front of the monastery Museum.
The Abbot, together with two priests and two deacons, officiated a Te Deum service. Then the abbot read the moving Speech held by King Ferdinand of Romania at Holy Prince Stephen the Great’s tomb in Putna on the 16th of May 1920.
Two student representatives gave a greeting and a speech, to which the Abbot responded with a word of exhortation entitled “Young people, get settled into God's work!”
With the singing of the Hymn of Heroes, the students extinguished the torches and went to the Great Hall, where they received gifts from the monastery.