The Monastery of Saint John the New in Suceava is a monastery with a community of monks, dedicated to Saint George the Great Martyr. It was built to cope with the multitude of believers who came to worship the relics of Saint John the New. The church was started by voivode Bogdan III, son of Stefan the Great, in 1514 and finished by Stefanita Voda, son of Bogdan in 1522, as the inscription above the entrance door in the porch shows. The church was consecrated by Metropolitan Teoctist.
Under the reign of Bogdan III, architecture revealed one of the most impressive monuments, the church of St. George in Suceava, where the principles formulated by the artists of the great Stefan are applied faithfully and with all the strict consequences, of course, on a larger scale great. The Slavonian pisania (96cm-71cm) placed above the door between the exonarthex and the tent so that the construction of the church of St. George was started by Voivode Bogdan III and finished by Stefanita Voda.
We cannot know with certainty what were the causes that determined the delay in building this church for eight years. Bogdan III is known to have succeeded, during his reign, in just two months in finishing the church in Reuseni, which St. Stephen the Great had not had time to finish.
The church was started by Bogdan III, but he did not manage to see it consecrated, because on April 21, 1517 it was announced that the voivode was brought to eternal rest with his father, in Putna. The throne of Moldova was to be occupied by Stefanita Voda (minor).
The church is finished in the first year in which Stefanita will be able to call herself "Dei gratia Dominus et Woiewoda regni Moldaviae".
The stated purpose at the beginning of the construction of this church was to serve the church of the Metropolitanate of Suceva, since the Mirauti church proved to be too small. The medieval architectural complex of the former metropolitan cathedral includes, along with the actual church, the bell tower and the church of Anastasie Crimca.
The copotnita tower was built during the reign of Peru the Lame, which kept in its original form a single floor built of irregular stone, provided with corners of folded stone. Then bands of three rows of bricks appear.
Metropolitan Anastasie Crimca builds an ecclesiastical church that will serve during the winter for the divine service. Between the years 1786-1789, the first clerical catechetical school in Suceava operated in this parish, led by the hieromonk Daniil Vlahovici. On the western side, four scenes depicting the martyrdom of St. John the New were painted in 1895 by Vladimir Mironescu.
After the annexation of the northern part of Moldavia in 1775 to the Habsburg Empire, the church life was also organized. Among the monasteries, only Putna, Sucevita and Dragomirna were preserved during the Habsburg rule, and the church of St. George was passed as the monastery of Dragomirna.
Saint John the New Monastery from Suceava Saint John the New Monastery from Suceava
During the archpastorship of Metropolitan Iacob Putneanul, the church of St. George experienced a period of restoration. In 1783, the relics of St. John the New, which had been in Zolkiev, were returned, followed by a series of decorations and decorations.
In 1786, the merchant Hagi Ivanciu from Botosani donated a wooden coffin for the preservation of the holy relics. Ten years later, the plumber Toader and his wife Anghelusa from Mlenauti replace the original iconostasis. The iconostasis belongs to the Moldavian Baroque style, standing out for its impressive dimensions, ornamental and chromatic sumptuousness.
From the pomelnik from 1805 we learn that the bishop of Dosita Herescu orders the priest Mihail to "make another new coffin for the holy relics, to bring bells, vestments and other good things".
In 1829, Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi covered the church and the bell tower, paved the church with stone slabs. The Viennese painter Johann Viertelberger worked on washing the interior painting for almost 3 years, intervening with the brush in restoring some themes.
On June 23, 1945, the Mitropolia of Bucovina established its headquarters in Suceava, at the church of Sf. Gheorghe.
Regarding the plan of the church, we observe the classical behavior. The recess is missing, which should have been like that in Neamt, interspersed between the pronaos and the nave. In the place of the pit, there is an extension of the nave, towards the west, which extension corresponds to the same articulation to the east, between the tower and the altar.
The tower is octagonal, has four windows and four small buttresses. It is placed on a double star plinth with eight peaks.
Saint John the New Monastery from Suceava Saint John the New Monastery from Suceava
The frescoes that decorate the church of St. George today are the work of Moldovan craftsmen from the time of Petru Rares. In 1893, after deciphering the inscription on the south wall of the nave behind the canopy under which the reliquary with the relics of St. John the New is located, Bishop Melchizedek concluded that the painting dates from the time of Petru Schiopul.
The interior and exterior painting are from the time of Petru Rares - 1534-1535. This church is among the first churches painted by Petru Rares.
From a stylistic point of view, the painting of the nave is the most representative; the tendency towards the amplification of the forms from the mural painting of the previous churches reaches its peak.
In the Church of St. George, the Annunciation shows the Mother of God sitting on the throne, and beyond her are two maids who open the curtain and, next to them, on a jilt, on the right side of the viewer, sits a woman, without a nimbus, with a pitchfork in her hand purring. In none of the frescoes representing the Annunciation are the women stretching the curtain behind the Virgin Mary's jilt, nor does Erminia know such a unique representation.
In the dome of the northern apse is presented one of the most successful scenes from medieval Moldavian painting - the Crucifixion.
From an artistic point of view, the votive painting affected from 1589, when Petru Schiopul brought the relics of St. John to the new church and until the restoration in 1910, deserves special attention.
The face of Teoctist II, metropolitan of Moldavia under Stefan the Great, deserves special attention, both from an artistic and historical point of view.
The exterior painting, executed as a continuation of the interior and which gave shine to the Sucevian metropolitan cathedral, suffered severe damage during the Habsburg rule when it was mostly covered with a layer of plaster and even more so to make the new layer of plaster take hold hammered the old painted plaster.
Of course, there is also the scene of the Siege of Constantinople, a scene admirable in its elegance and very eloquent in its content, depicting a solemn troop of horsemen, in fact a symbolic procession of sacred characters accompanying the emperor Constantine the Great.
The simplest and most dramatic composition occupying the entire west wall is the Last Judgment, truly a masterpiece of the painter. The placement of the Last Judgment on the western side has special causes. In the western part of the old Christian basilica was the atrium, which in the later buildings was transformed into an open courtyard where the deceased were buried.
The cell body was built in the 18th century, and the residence in 1894. In the monastery is the depository of old Romanian books of Suceava county.
Source: www.crestinortodox.ro