According to some dates in the records, Varzaresti Monastery is the oldest monastery in Basarabia.

The first time this monastery is mentioned in documents is on the 25th of April, 1420. The mention is about a document that Alexander the Good gave to his boyar named Venea. It was a document by which he officiates some estates under Venea’s name.

The monastery appears as “Kisno-Varzareva” Monastery and was the border of the boyar’s estate.

There was only one church with the Saint Dumitru festival until 1862. The church was built in wood and covered with shingle in 1796 by rector Macarevici. It also had a belfry raised in 1835. On the place where the wooden church was standing, another one was erected in stone in 1863. In 1926 the monastery had two churches. The monks left this monastery in 1815, but the nuns came here leaving the destroyed hermitage in Cosauti.

In 1944 the household of the monastery was confiscated by Russians. Platonida nun was the last abbess of the monastery. In the spring of 1959, the representatives of Soviet authorities arrived here guided by Fiodor Scofari, the President of the village soviet at that time. They loaded all the bells, icons, church books, archive and jewels and carried them out to a place where those could be burned. The church was closed, but the nuns were still living in their cells. Fifty nuns and sisters lived in the monastery at that time.

The monastic complex was devastated, but the belfry and a body of houses, which sheltered the shop for weaving and sawing, were erased from earth. The Saint Dumitru summer church was turned into a food storehouse, but the winter one –into a club.

In the long run, the monastic assembly was running in a pathetic condition, the summer church was left in ruins without its spire, but the club, because of its lousy maintenance of the church that was its shelter, was moved to another place. Only the small houses of those 15 nuns and sisters, who were still alive in 1989, remained untouched.

In 1990 due to the demands of monks and Christians from the village the monastery had been re-established.

In 1991 the construction of the Varzeresti Monastery was started, having as its leader nun Feodosia Enache until 1994. Mother Feodosia came to the monastery back in 1949 where she took the veil after spending several years on church hearings. Vasile Placinta was named the confessor of the monastery who took the habbit under the name Serafim.

The Birth of Holly Virgin winter church, which was ruined and irretrievable, had been destroyed completely. Still, a small room had been arranged for the church ceremonies.

In 1994 nun Georgia, as laywoman Claudia Placinta, became the abbess of the monastery. She was the confessor’s daughter, Serafim Placinta. Also, in 1994, the reparation of the Saint Dumitru summer church was started.

Translated from Romanian by Leca Olga, Moldova.ORG

www.moldova.org