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“Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Centre

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“Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Centre

Archaeologist Voica Pușcașu presents the vigil lamp discovered at the foundation of the princely church.

Around the Great Feast held on the 2nd of July 2004, the monastery, in close cooperation with a family of historians, Ștefan S. Gorovei and Maria Magdalena Székely, published three volumes dedicated to Saint Stephen the Great. In 2004, the monastery also hosted the International Symposium “Stephen the Great and Holy. Athlete of Christian Faith”, whose papers were published in a volume with the same name. In addition to the high scientific level, the participants, historians from Bucharest, Iași, Athens, Paris, Moscow, Toulouse, Thessaloniki and Simferopol particularly appreciated the cooperation between the monastic community and the “community of historians”.

Professor Ștefan S. Gorovei presents to other historians a document during the “Putna Colloquia”.
Professor Ștefan S. Gorovei presents to other historians a document during the “Putna Colloquia”.

Encouraged by the results, historical research continued with the help of professors from the Faculty of History of the “Al.I. Cuza” University of Iași and researchers from the “N. Iorga” History Institute in Bucharest.

Holy Monastery Putna’s “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Center was established in 2005. Its scientific goals are to research the era of Saint Stephen the Great and the history of Putna Monastery, emphasizing “its role in shaping our medieval culture and then in the Romanian Renaissance and the fostering of national sentiment”.

Voica Pușcașu presents to the participants in the “Putna Colloquia” a vigil lamp discovered during archaeological excavations at the foundation of the princely church, under the Holy Altar.

Annals of Putna

The “Annals of Putna” journal is the only scientific publication dedicated to Stephen the Great’s epoch and the history of Putna Monastery. Like the “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Centre, it was born out of the need to stimulate and bring together historians' efforts to deepen Stephanian studies and research on Putna's history. In the meantime, the scientific goals broadened to include the history of the Bukovina monasteries.

The journal is indexed in multiple international databases: EBSCO Host, CEEOL and Index Copernicus.

“Annals of Putna” journal.

After its establishment, the “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Centre started to organize the “Putna Colloquia” History Symposium, which reached its 29th edition in 2023, and to publish the “Annals of Putna” journal, where the works of the symposium are published along with other history contributions.

The monastery’s “Metropolitan Jacob of Putna” Publishing House has printed over 20 scientific papers under the auspices of the Centre. Multiple scientific conferences were held at the Sucevița and Dragomirna Monasteries with the Centre’s support.