Mănăstirea Doamnei (Toplița, Harghita, Romania)

Please turn ON English subtitle! - Vă rog să activați subtitrarea în românește! The Doamnei (Lady's) Monastery is a small nunnery monastery located in the right slope of the Mures Valley, near Moglanesti village, about 3.5 km east of the town of Toplita (Harghita County, Transylvania, Romania). Her name comes from the old wooden church, a historical monument, built in 1658 from the donation of Lady Safta, who was then in refuge with her husband Gheorghe Stefan, the voivode of Moldova. The legend says that returning here and seeing a simple wooden church instead of a large, Moldavian like, monastery, Lady Safta would have died of bad heart. The monastic settlement passes through great ordeals, being abandoned and deserted for almost 200 years, until in 1958 when it was restored and resanctifyed under the protection of the St. Elijah Monastery in Toplita. The establishment of the diocese of Covasna and Harghita, through the bishop Ioan Sălăjan brings a new breath. In 1999 the monks hermitage was transformed into a monastery of nuns. The old church (the Lady's Church) has the patronage "The Entrance of Our Lady to the Church" (November 21st), but the patronage of the monastery (and of the new church) is September 8th, a pilgrimage day when the Feast of the Nativity of Mother of God is celebrated. During the period 2001-2008 the monastery expanded with several important buildings. The construction of the new church since 2013 completes the Lady's Safta dream, after three centuries and a half years, namely to have here a monastery built in stone, similar the ones in Moldavia.