Sihăstria Putnei Monastery is a Christian-Orthodox monastery of monks, from the Archdiocese of Suceva and Rădăuților.
Located in the north of Bucovina, 4 km from Putna Monastery, Sihastria Putneitoday it represents a harbor of tranquility, peace and blessing, which spring from a centuries-old past of holiness and hardship. The exact date of the establishment of Sihastria Putna cannot be established with complete certainty, due to the lack of sources. According to the Historian of the Putna Sihastria, authored by Abbot Sila (1753-1781), the Putna Sihastria was founded during the reign of the Pious Voivode Stefan the Great and Saint, when we also learn about the first living Sihastria known by the name: a Tatar Christianized, then became a monk with the name of Athanasius, came here from the Putna Monastery. In the opinion of many historians, not only monks from the Putna Monastery settled around the pious one, but, after 1470, when Saint Daniil the Hermit moved to Voronet, some of his disciples went up the Putna river valley and settled here, you are attracted, among other things, by the beauty of the surroundings and the special spiritual charge of the place.
After a certain time, the hermits decided to build a church for themselves, so that they would no longer have to go down to Putna for the Holy Liturgy and for receiving the Holy Communion. At that time, the area was forested, so that the hermits here, first "cleaning the place of the forest", built a wooden church in which they performed the late services. However, we do not know the year or the hierarch who officiated this consecration.
The tranquility of the monks living in Sihastria Putnei was disturbed at the end of the 17th century by the unleashed armies of the Polish king Ioan Sobieski (1674-1696). It will remain like this until the peace of Karlowitz (1699), when the monks who had wandered through the mountains returned to their places. The first abbot of Sihastria known by his name is Lazar, a disciple of the holy Metropolitan Dosoftei of Moldavia (1671-1686). With the support of the great treasurer prince Ilie Cantacuzino, he built a new little wooden church in which, as the sources tell us, "barely fit four or five hermits". His successors at the head of the monastic settlement were Teodosie (+ 1715) and Dosoftei (+ 1753). In the second half of the 18th century, Sihastria Putnei experienced a special flourishing during the time of Abbot Sila (1753-1781), originally from the lands of Botosani.
Source: www.crestinortodox.ro