Chitcani Monastery
The Chitcani Monastery (Mănăstirea Chiţcani), also known as the New Neamts Monastery (Mănăstirea Noul Neamţ), is located in Chiţcani, Moldova, in an area currently under the internationally unrecognized government of Transdnistria. The Monastery is the largest monastic community in eastern Moldova and part of the autonomous Moldovan Orthodox Church.
History
The Chitcani Monastery was founded in 1861 by monks from the Neamts Monastery in Moldavia. The monks left Neamts because of the government of Alexander Cuza, which had confiscated the estates of the Moldavian monasteries and banned the use of Slavonic in the divine services in an effort to promote Romanian nationalism in the region. The fleeing monks naturally found refuge in the Russian Empire and the Russian Orthodox Church, which had been given jurisdiction over Bessarabia.
Along with the rest of Bessarabia, the Chitcani Monastery came under Romanian rule and the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church following the collapse of the Russian Empire. Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and the repression of religious life experienced in the rest of the USSR began in the region, which eventually became a member republic of the USSR. In 1962 the Chitcani Monastery was closed and turned into a hospital.
In 1989 the church of the Chitcani Monastery was reopened and in 1990 the Monastery was formally reestablished.
External Links
- Noul Neamţ Monastery (Official Website)
- Noul Neamţ Monastery (Wikipedia)
