MĂNĂSTIREA BISERICANI - Biserica voievodală Buna Vestire (județul Neamț)

Please turn ON English subtitles! - Vă rog să activați subtitrarea în românește! The Bisericani Monastery is located on the northern slope of Bistrița, only 14 km from Piatra Neamț (towards Bicaz). The Bisericani monastery is famous for the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God. Also, from this monastery come two Romanian saints canonized in 2008, namely saints Chiriac and Iosif (Joseph). The pious Chiriac lived in needs on this mountain for 60 years, without clothes and without food, at the beginning of the 17th century, thus being likened to Saint Onuphrius the Great. Pious Iosif is the one who initiated monasticism in Bisericani, and the group led by him had the meeting with the Mother of God. The relics of the two saints are found in the church of the monastery. The name Bisericani, with the meaning of "church people" is due to the group of hermits led by Pious Iosf who, after returning from the Holy Land, founded a new monastic settlement here at the end of the 15th century, introducing continuous prayer. After the destruction of the old wooden church built by the Pious Iosif, a stone church was built at the beginning of the 16th century, there are several opinions regarding the founder (Stephen the Great, his son Bogdan III, or Ștefăniță Vodă, the grandson). The church was modified in 1535 by Petru Rareș, and between 1627-1631, surrounded with thick walls and 4 towers by rulers Miron Barnovschi Movilă and Moise Movilă. Seven years later, voivode Vasile Lupu added cells and a bell tower. The current form dates from 1786, due to the Phanariot ruler Constantin Moruzzi, from the original church being preserved the pronaos with the bell tower. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Bisericani Monastery flourished, rivaling through the large number of monks (800), special spiritual and cultural life, but also through extensive possessions, with the nearby Bistrița Monastery. Due to a complicated history, marked by the battles (1821) between Eteria and the Ottoman Empire and especially by Cuza's law (1864) regarding the secularization of monastic assets, the Bisericani Monastery is decaying. For a short time it was transformed into a prison, and from 1905 the Pneumoftziology Hospital (TBC sanatorium) was established here. From the great medieval fortified monastery, the old voivodeship church (dating from the beginning of the 16th century) remained and is preserved in relatively good condition, but which in fact is "buried" by the new buildings of the hospital, a fact that led the monks to build a new monastery not far away, in the area of the miraculous apparition of the Mother of God. Thus, the old voivodeship church is more difficult to access, less often visited, but our video tries to bring a new ray of light.