The graceful churches of Saint Stephen the Great, recall the years of manhood, glory and piety, restraint and hope, in other words of an intense national spiritual life. The paintings from the time of Petru Rares and up to Alexandru Lapusneanu show us the conclusion of a fully formed art, the art that sometimes passes through a breeze of heroism. The Bogdana Monastery from the town of Radauti is also counted among these testimonies of national value and faith.
The beginnings of the Bogdana Monastery, known as the Saint Hierarch Nicholas Church, are lost in the mists of time, during the period of the establishment of the Moldavian feudal state. Over time, this architectural monument of particular beauty has fulfilled a special historical, religious and cultural role.
Despite the inclement weather, the church has withstood over the centuries Tatar and Turkish invasions, robberies, wars and Habsburg domination, constituting over time a guarantee of the Romanian national spirit.
If in Transylvania the first monastery was Hodos - Bodrog, mentioned in the year 1117 in a letter of King Bela III, and in Romania the Black Voda Monastery, dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, in Moldova we have the Bogdana Monastery, dedicated to the Saint Hierarch Nicolae, founded by Bogdan I.
An architectural monument, the church of St. Nicholas was built by voivode Bogdan Voda (1359-1365), as a thank you to God for the success in the wars that he carried to lay the foundations of a free and independent state east of the Carpathians, in The country of Moldova.
This holy place of worship was to be the necropolis for both him and the descendants of his family, the rulers of Moldavia were buried here until the time of Alexander the Good, as well as the relatives of the ruling families.
During the reign of Alexander the Good, the church became an episcopal seat, the bishops having their residence in the monastery. Some historians claim that the Bogdana Monastery was the metropolitan residence, until July 26, 1401, when the Metropolitanate of Moldavia was officially recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the metropolitan seat was moved to Suceava.
In 1775, when the north of Moldavia was occupied by the Habsburgs, the Bogdana Monastery was abolished, and the Saint Nicholas Church remained the episcopal church until 1782, when the bishopric was transferred to Cernauti.
By moving the episcopate to Cernauti, in 1782, the St. Nicholas Church was transformed into a parish church, a part of the existing cells around the church were demolished, and another part was transformed into stables for the horses of the Austrian garrison stationed here.
After 1918, when Bucovina was liberated, the Bogdana Monastery was not re-established, and the Saint Nicholas Church remained the parish church until the last decades of the 20th century, when it was closed by the communist regime, being considered a historical monument.
Bogdana Monastery was reopened on December 6, 1992, when the first abbot of the monastery after 1775, in the person of Archimandrite Teodor Pavlo, was installed. In 1996, abbot Teodor moved to the eternal ones, the archimandrite father Iustin Dragomir being elected in his place.
The new abbot accelerated the pace of ongoing works and started new ones, so that in 1996, the degraded linden vault of the Church of St. Nicholas was replaced with a new one of oak, and he began the construction of a body of cells with archondric, completed in 1998. Also in this year, the new church, dedicated to Saint Leontie of Radauti, was finished and covered with copper sheeting.
Bogdana Monastery - church architecture
Saint Nicholas Church is the first religious stone building in Moldova, which has been preserved in its original, unaltered form until today. This is considered a true birth document of national architecture in Moldova. The Saint Nicholas Church recalls the turbulent times related to the foundation of the Moldavian feudal state and is the expression of an admirable artistic synthesis between Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine architecture.
The general arrangement of the plan shows the characteristics of the Romanesque basilica with choir and apse. The tendency to break some arches and vaults is characteristic of Gothic architecture, and specific to Byzantine architecture is the delimitation of the interior space in the altar, nave, porch and vestibule.
Bogdana Monastery - painting of the church
The history displayed in the church records that, probably, the first layer of painting dates from the first decades of the 14th century, from the time of Alexander the Good. During the time of Voivode Alexandru Lapusneanu, in 1558, a new layer of painting was recorded.
A second layer of painting would be from the years 1745-1750, during the time of bishop Iacob Putneanul. The frescoes in this last phase are covered with a tempera painting by the Bucovina painter Epaminonda Bucevschi in 1880.
In the votive painting, painted in the nave, Alexandru Lapusneanu along with Bogdan I and Alexander the Good, there is also Stefan the Great, proof of the execution of the painting in his time.
Bogdana Monastery - the tombs
The choice of the Church of St. Nicholas as the resting place of the rulers is the indisputable proof of the first stone church in Moldova. Thus, there are 7 graves in the nave.
The first tomb, in the southeast corner of the nave, is that of Bogdan I. Latcu Voievod is also buried on the same side of the nave.
Next to the tombs of Bogdan I and Latcu is a tomb with the inscription of the funerary slab erased, being placed at the level of the floor and not above it like the others. According to the size of the tombstone, it is assumed that a woman was buried here, maybe even Maria, the wife of Bogdan I or Ana, the wife of Latcu.
On the other hand, the historian Stefan Gorovei claims that this tomb belongs to Petru I, as he was not buried in Probota. He argues his opinion by the fact that in Radauti, until Alexander the Good, voivodes were buried according to their succession to the throne, so that after Bogdan I and Latcu followed Petru I, so his tomb followed that of Latcu. Next to the northern wall are 4 tombs of Stefan I, Roman I, Bogdan, the brother of Alexander the Good and Bogdan, the son of Alexander the Good. In the porch of the church, there are 3 graves. On the northern side is the tomb of Lady Stana, wife of Bogdan III and mother of Stefanita Voda, and the tomb of Anastasia, daughter of Latcu. In front of the porch door is the tombstone of Bishop Ioanichie, who died in 1504.
Bogdana Monastery - national and world monument
Through its artistic, architectural and decorative qualities, the Bogdana Monastery is today one of the representative monuments of the artistic and cultural heritage of Romania, being included in the UNESCO heritage, proving an ancient and deep spiritual life of our Romanian nation.
Source of information and photo: www.crestinortodox.ro