Interwar Period

The Great Union of 1918 meant Putna’s returning to its natural place within Greater Romania. The monastery had represented a place of memory for the Romanian people even before 1918, the expression of this reality being the celebrations of 1871 and 1904. But after the Union, all Romanian souls gathered together in Putna, in a “pious gesture of honoring the sacred memory” of Stephen the Great, who had been a “wellspring of patience in times of humility, and of courage in times of difficulty” (King Ferdinand I). The great prince was the icon‑voivode whom the Romanian soul had turned into a symbol of comfort and hope.

Signing in the Impression Book of the Putna Monastery. — Signing in the Impression Book of the Putna Monastery in December 1918: “The first Romanian officer at Greater Romania’s Putna – Lietutenant Anibal Dobjanski, Regimen 8 Roșiori”

The tomb of Saint Stephen the Great now represents for unified Romania “an occasion of spiritual bonding and empowering of Romanians everywhere,” a place for the completion of education, a source wherefrom Romanians draw “the truthful and incorruptible love of country and nation; bravery, wisdom, faith in God, hope in the cross of Christ, love of righteousness, purity of conscience, strength to spurn cunning, flattery, and phariseeism,” all for the “unification of our vision, understanding and fostering unity in everything among all.”

In the first year after the liberation of Bukovina, Romanians from all provinces of the nation came together: ministers, generals, university professors, members of various associations of the time (precursors of today’s NGOs), civil servants, country folk, students, and pupils.

A special moment was the arrival of the Royal Family on May 16, 1920: King Ferdinand, Queen Mary, and Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by Metropolitan Primate Myron Cristea and Metropolitan Pimen Georgescu of Moldavia.

Signatures of the Royal Family in the Impression Book. — Signatures of the Royal Family in the Impression Book on May 16, 1920.

“Chilia and Cetatea Albă (Akkerman), whose loss made your heart bleed, are ours now,” the king said. “And Transylvania, for which you and your brave son carried victorious weapons over the mountains, is ours. Ours are the seaside and the rich Lower Danube!”

Other members of the Royal House of Romania and of other European Royal Houses came as well: Princes Carol II and Nicholas; Princess Ileana and the Great Voivode of Alba Iulia, Michael; Crown Princess Helen, wife of Carol II, accompanied by her sister Princess Irene; Prince Paul; Princesses Margaret and Theodora; Princess Mary of Greece; Princes Christophe of Denmark and François of France.

Abbot Gregory Volchinsky and the monastic community of Putna. — Abbot Gregory Volchinsky and the monastic community of Putna during the Interwar Period.

The material situation of the monastery improved with the return of the monastic properties to the Church. King Ferdinand approved the decision of the Council of Ministers of March 31, 1921 by which the Orthodox Religious Fund of Bukovina went into the administration of the Church.

For a better understanding of the nation’s past, the Ministry of Education required its educational institutions to organize three study trips annually, during which Putna was a site to be visited as well. Other pilgrimages were also added, initiated by different societies and institutions.

On the 1st of February 1925, Ion Nistor, chairman of the Historic Monuments Committee – the Chernivtsi Regional Branch, sent to Putna Monastery the official notice by which the holy place was declared a historical monument. The document was accompanied by a questionnaire to be “filled with accuracy” and the invitation to make an inventory of its most precious treasures.

The patrimony of the monastery’s objects participated in national and international exhibitions, such as those from Paris (1925) and Brussels (1935). An important work on the embroidery of the monastery was published in Paris by Professor Orestes Tafrali of the University of Iași, Le trésor byzantin et roumain du Monastère de Poutna (The Byzantine and Romanian Treasure of Putna Monastery).

Nicolae Iorga made a study visit to Putna Monastery.

The material situation of the monastery improved with the return of the monastic properties to the Church. King Ferdinand approved the decision of the Council of Ministers from March 31, 1921, by which the Orthodox Religious Fund of Bukovina went into the administration of the Church.

The Second World War led to a new period of regression. After Soviet troops occupied northern Bukovina, Hieromonk Paisius Prelipceanu, the future abbot, served in the villages and communes under occupation and was “light and comfort, support and help, encouragement and patience in maintaining the Orthodox Faith and Tradition,” trying to prevent the churches’ „being turned into warehouses and movie theaters.” After the war, all ties to Northern Bukovina were cut.

The harsh conditions of the war were captured in numerous correspondence pages. For instance, on May 19, 1942, Abbot Paisius asked the “first praetor” of Rădăuți for two liters of oil a week for Stephen the Great’s vigil lamp “which was to be kept alight continuously.” No matter how difficult the times were, the light on the great ruler’s tomb had to continue to comfort the Romanians and to raise its intercession to the heavens.

The war gravely disturbed Putna’s monastic life. In search of enemy soldiers, both the German and Soviet army, successively, threatened with the destruction of the monastery. In both situations, salvation came through the humility and wisdom of a monk: Father Damascene Schipor, who knew what to say to appease the soldiers of both armies.

Interwar Period

Under Austrian Rule 1775–1918

During the Communist regime 1945–1989