A unique embroidery of particular artistic and symbolic value is Maria Asanina Palaiologina’s tomb cover.
Lady Mary’s portrait expresses the humility, serenity, and dignity that every Christian is called to manifest when confronted with death, knowing it means passing to incorruptible life and meeting Christ.
This is the tomb cover of the servant of God, Mary, right‑believing and Christ‑loving consort of Io Stephen Voivode, ruler of Moldavia, who passed away to the eternal mansions in 6985 <1477>, the 19th of December, Friday, at the fifth hour of the day.
The tomb cover of Lady Maria Asanina Palaiologina (Mary of Mangup) is the only one embroidered entirely on silk among the entire Putna textile collection.
The imperial emblems of the Palaiologos dynasty, to which she belonged, are represented in the corners, on the collar, and in the arcade: crux gammata (swastika), losange ouvert (symbol resembling two adorned intertwined C letters), bâtons parallèles (grid‑like), the Asanins’ and the Palaiologos’ monograms, and the double‑headed eagle, emblem of the Byzantine Empire. It is the portrait of an empress, which similarly shows that Saint Stephen, her husband, was also an emperor, as evidenced by his name, which was given in honor of the victory at Vaslui and on the 1473 Four-Gospel Book.
For his marriage to Lady Mary, Saint Stephen chose a special day: the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 1472. On a day relating to the first Christian emperor of Constantinople, Saint Constantine the Great, the prince of Moldavia married a member of the last ruling dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. Thus, he publicly expressed the same concept of state and of political leadership embodied by Saint Constantine. Even though the Turks had conquered Constantinople and Christian rule could not continue there, the voivode continued it here, in the country that God had entrusted him with.
Lady Mary’s state of origin testified to the difficulty of such an ideal. In 1475, after a six‑month siege, the Principality of Theodoro in Crimea, with its capital at Mangup, was conquered by the Turks. 300 soldiers, sent by Saint Stephen from Moldavia to offer support, died at the time. Lady Mary’s brother, Alexander, was beheaded by order of Sultan Mehmed II, and his family was taken to Istanbul – the women were taken in the sultan’s harem, and the men converted to Islam or were killed. Two years later, Lady Mary died, too, and she was buried in the newly‑founded Putna Monastery necropolis. It was the first burial service held here.
