Daniil Sihastrul's Cell (Chilia lui Daniil Sihastrul)

Daniil Sihastrul's Cell lies in the village of Putna, Putna commune, Suceava County, in the valley of the Vițău stream near its confluence with the Putna river, about 1 km from Putna Monastery. It is a small chapel hollowed out of a rock that rises above the valley, with a room below it, also cut into the stone, that served as the hermit's cell. Daniil Sihastrul was born early in the fifteenth century in a village near Rădăuți and was baptised Dumitru. He became a monk at 16 under the name David at the St Nicholas Monastery in Rădăuți, was ordained a priest, then withdrew to the St Lawrence Monastery near Vicovu de Sus and, as a schema-monk named Daniil, to the Vițău valley. Tradition holds that he lived here for about 20 years and that around 1451 he received the young Stephen, son of Bogdan II, and foretold that he would become prince. After the consecration of the church of Putna Monastery, Daniil moved to Voroneț, where he died in 1496 and was buried in the monastery church. The Romanian Orthodox Church canonised him in 1992, with his feast on 18 December. The chapel has three rooms (narthex, nave and sanctuary) and is 9.25 m long and 2 m high. Traces of colour can still be seen on the vault, and a small niche in the sanctuary wall once held an icon. On the nave wall, beside the window, a cross and a few letters dated to 1499 are carved into the rock. The room under the chapel, entered from beneath the rock, was the cell itself. The site is today a place of pilgrimage visited by thousands of people every year. The cell is on the List of Historic Monuments of Suceava County under the code SV-II-m-B-05593 and is dated to the fifteenth century. It can be seen on the way to or from Putna Monastery.