During his visit to the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuti, on Saturday, the 17th of June 2023, Archimandrite Ephraim, abbot of the Athonite Vatopaidi Monastery, together with a group of monks and laymen, his spiritual sons, visited Putna Monastery, Saint Stephen the Great’s foundation.
Abbot Melchizedek and some monastery fathers welcomed the delegation at the monastery gate, and then the hosts and guests proceeded to the monastery church. The guests honored the tomb of the holy founder and the icon of the Mother of God, while the monastery chanters sang St. Stephen the Great’s troparion and the “It Is Truly Meet" hymn (Axion Estin).
In his welcoming address, Archimandrite Melchizedek recalled the life of St. Stephen, his years of intense activity as a founder of churches: 1486-1504, the voivode’s years of the “Great Prayer”, when he also offered gifts to the monasteries of the Holy Mount Athos. The abbot also recalled the era of Holy Metropolitan Jacob of Putna, the second great founder of Putna Monastery, the spiritual and cultural flourishing of the monastery, but also the difficult periods it went through, namely the Habsburg occupation and the communist period, with the bleak Decree 410 from the year 1959. Referring to the period after 1989, Abbot Melchizedek emphasized the importance of fraternal ties between our monastery and the monasteries of Greece and the Holy Mount Athos, but also with the monasteries of the Antiochian Patriarchate, particularly recalling the spiritual and material help given to us by Archimandrite Polycarp Matzaroglou, the confessor of the Makri – Alexandroupolis Monastery.
The ties and unity of ideals between the Putna and Vatopaidi monasteries were also remarked, unity stemming from the common desire to fulfill the Savior's commandment to love God and one’s neighbor. Concern for the young people and closeness to the intellectual and cultural world while remaining within the profound Orthodox tradition are expressions of the two communities’ joint work.
In conclusion, Abbot Melchizedek called the meeting a day of resurrection, as Father Polycarp liked to say whenever he met with the Putna fathers.
In his response, Abbot Ephraim recalled that St. Stephen the Great is mentioned among the great founders of the Vatopaidi Monastery after rebuilding the monastery port. He said that, although it was his first visit to Putna, from what he had read and heard, he knew the rich history of our monastery and the monastery’s spiritual and cultural activity. Praying the Good Lord to strengthen the fraternal bond between our monasteries for the strengthening of faith and the glory of the Church, Abbot Ephraim gave Putna Monastery a copy of the Gospel given to Vatopaidi Monastery by Byzantine Emperor John Cantacuzino VI.
The guests then visited the monastery museum, the “Holy Apostles Peter and Paul” Chapel, where they honored St. Jacob of Putna’s relics, and the Princely House, rebuilt on the old foundation from St. Stephen the Great’s time by His Beatitude Theoctistus, Romania’s former Patriarch of blessed memory.
In the end, Abbot Ephraim wrote the following entry in the Golden Book of the monastery: “It is with great joy that we visit the Holy Putna Monastery and see this famous monastery that has contributed to living the Orthodoxy. May the Mother of God cover this community and its abbot”.
The ringing of bells accompanied their departure, with the hope of seeing them again.