Sihăstria Monastery

Sihăstria Monastery lies in the forests of Vânători-Neamț commune, about 3 km from Secu Monastery, on the DJ157F county road. According to the founders' commemoration list, in 1655 seven hieroschemamonks from Neamț Monastery gathered in "Aftanasie's Clearing" and founded a skete dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God, a dedication kept to this day. Bishop Ghedeon of Huși built its first church, of wood. In 1734 Ghedeon, by then Bishop of Roman, built a new stone church and placed the skete under Secu Monastery. From 1779 the skete was guided by Paisius Velichkovsky, abbot of the Neamț and Secu monasteries. In 1821, after the battle at Secu between the Greek Eterists and the Turks, Sihăstria was burned. It was rebuilt in 1824 by Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi, with the support of Nicolae Cerneschi, who became a monk here under the name Nicanor and was buried beside the church; the bell tower, a wing of cells, the gate tower and the stone wall were rebuilt at the same time. Between 1889 and 1909 the skete was abandoned because of a sawmill built nearby, and it was re-established in 1909 by Metropolitan Pimen Georgescu. The hieroschemamonk Ioanichie Moroi led the skete from 1909 to 1944, and under Abbot Cleopa Ilie (1945-1949) the community grew so much that in 1947 Patriarch Nicodim raised Sihăstria to the rank of monastery, independent of Neamț and Secu. The old church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, built of river stone and brick on a triconch plan with a single tower, was restored and repainted in fresco in 1986-1988. The winter chapel of Sts Joachim and Anna, built in 1946 to replace the one that burned in 1941, was painted in an academic, almost miniature style by the schemamonk Irineu Protcenco, who also painted the icon of the Lament of the Mother of God. The cathedral of St Theodora of Sihla was built in the 1990s, and the wooden cemetery church, dating from 1740, was brought here in 1988 from the village of Hlăpești. A wing of cells was converted into a museum during the restoration completed in 2022. Sihăstria is known as the home of the spiritual fathers Cleopa Ilie (died 1998) and Paisie Olaru, canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in July 2024; the local proclamation took place at Sihăstria on 7 August 2025. The monastery cemetery also holds the graves of Archimandrite Ioanichie Bălan, who founded the monastery's publishing house, the hieroschemamonk Ioanichie Moroi and the schemamonk Irineu Protcenco. The complex is a class A historic monument (LMI code NT-II-a-A-10736), and Father Cleopa's cell is open to visitors.