Suruceni Saint George monastery

Distance from Chisinau: 25 km
Trip to the excursion place: 30-40 min 
Duration of excursion: 3 hours

The Suruceni  Saint George monastery began as a men's skit over 200 years ago, and continues its modern life as the female monastery. Today it is one of the most famous monasteries in Moldova.
 
Its history began in 1785 from a small monastery where some monks lived as the religious eremites. The skit status was changed by the Montenegro celibate priest Joseph, who offered to base in its place the monastery. Joseph also became the first monastic elder-abbot of the men's Suruceni monastery. 
Boyar Kasian from the ancient Bessarabian family Surucianu became the first church warden of the Suruceni monastery. The new monastery settled down on the lands of its ancestral lands, near to its manor - today this is the village Suruceni, some 19 kilometers from Chisinau. 
 
The first – men's - Suruceni  monastery closed on 03 July 1959. 
Today's life of the monastery is 19 novices: the Suruceni monastery has its second birth - now it is female monastery. Life there is ascetic and ordered: the first church service begins at 6 a.m., the last one at 9 p.m.. And all day round and at nights they read the Psalmbook. 
 
Monastery life today is the pilgrims. It has hallows of three saints, the touch to which relieves from some physical illnesses. This is a part of the most ancient of  hallows of Christian saints remained  in Black sea region of Danube.
In the second half of XIX century Antipas Valaam presented to the monastery an icon with hallows of Serafim which is today in the Main cathedral, and in 2000 the Suruceni monastery received the hallows of Antipa, one of the most honored canonized saints of the Romanian, Moldavian and Russian orthodox churches. Its ashes are lying in the Valaam monastery, and there he is called Antipa Moldavian.
 
Recommendations for the tourist
• convenient footwear and clothes
• headdress against the sun
• the camera
• for women the clothes covering shoulders and a skirt below knees are obligatory
Services of the guide: Russian, Romanian, English, German
Transport services: Minivan, Minibus, Bus  

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