The eighteenth century represented the second epoch of great flourishing of the monastery. Exceptional personalities dedicated their lives to Christ at Putna, and their spiritual life shone brightly over the society and the Church at the time.
A note from 1756 related to Saint Jacob of Putna shows the spiritual lineage of the four great fathers who watched over the monastery: Metropolitan Sava “tonsured Bishop Callistrus; Callistrus tonsured Metropolitan Anthony, and Anthony tonsured Metropolitan Jacob.”
Metropolitan Sava was first a monk at Putna, then the abbot of the monastery, and then bishop of Roman (1685–1689). He was elected metropolitan of Moldavia, shepherding the faithful during troubled times: 15 voivodes changed reign in his 13 years of tenure as metropolitan. He placed a curse on the cattle tax for the first time, as it was very burdensome for the people. Because of it, he was deposed in 1702. He retired to Sinești Skete of the monastery, wherefrom he watched over the spiritual and material life of Putna.
Bishop Callistrus was the second great father cultivated in the brotherhood of Putna, whose abbot he later became. Between 1708 and 1728 he was bishop of Rădăuți.
The next spiritual father from the mentioned lineage was Metropolitan Anthony. Born in the Chernivtsi area, he was tonsured a monk at Putna, and then he lived as a hermit at Horecea Skete that he founded near Chernivtsi. He became bishop of Rădăuți in 1528 and then metropolitan of Moldavia between 1729 and 1739. In 1739, during a war between the Turks and the Russians, desiring to free the country from under the Turkish yoke, he negotiated the independence of the nation with the leader of the Russian army. But the end of the war made Moldavia depended on the Ottoman Empire again. He left for Russia, where he was metropolitan until his death in 1748. Among the fruits of his bitter exile was his influence over the future Saint Paisius Velichkovsky. He always kept his ties to Putna and the Church he had shepherded.
In the spring of 1738, an earthquake shook the church, tore down the tower, and ruined the surrounding wall and some corner towers. In the following autumn, Putna was attacked by Russian troops retreating from Moldavia, who „caused great damage—they cut, they robbed, they looted.”
In 1745, Saint Jacob of Putna, the abbot of the monastery, was elected bishop of Rădăuți, and in 1750, metropolitan of Moldavia. He truly was the man chosen by God to be Putna’s second great ktetor. Devoted body and soul to the monastery in which he had been tonsured and which he called his “mother,” Saint Jacob spared no effort and expense in renewing it. He also put a great amount of effort into the cultural and spiritual rise of the Church and of the whole country.
Before beginning his work, Saint Jacob gathered around him a group of collaborators. The necessary monetary funds came from his own money, but also through the effort of his team. For example, he sent Saint Silas, the caretaker of Putna Hermitage, to raise funds in Wallachia.
He summoned from Russia one of his brother monks, Bartholomew Mazereanu, who had remained there after the death of Metropolitan Anthony and was a hard worker and a lover of books. Saint Jacob elevated him to the status of archimandrite on August 15, 1755. On the same day, he mounted in silver the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God. These two events that occurred on the monastery’s patronal feast marked the beginning of the renovation work.
Previously, Saint Jacob had appointed a skillful scholar, Saint Nathan (Hieromonk Nathanail Dreteanul at the time) as father confessor of the monastery. Another collaborator of Saint Jacob’s was Hieromonk Callistratus, (from the noble Roschip family), the abbot of Putna at the time. Many others, such as the bishops of Roman and Huși, monks from the monastery, rulers and boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, contributed to the restoration of Putna, an undertaking that proved to be of national interest.
