Romania's romance

Due to its geographical location, Romania was always the meeting point of political and territorial interests. The Romans, and later the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires have all tried in turn to take over this land. This makes Romanian history particularly interesting, as the local people always stood up against foreign occupation, managing to preserve its culture and traditions.

Historically, the descendants of two very old peoples: The Dacians and The Romans. The Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of the land. Due to the legendary richness of this region, Dacia was a great temptation for the Roman Emperors. But Dacia was not easy to conquer, and general after general had to bow in front of the brave natives. Finally, the Emperor Traianus conquered the country in A.D.106. The celebration of the victory lasted 123 days. Seven years later, Traianus erected a monument depicting his victory, which is called Traianus's Column and still stands in Rome. By the mixing of the two peoples, the Romanian people emerged. As a proof of Rome's powerful influence, not only the land was later called Romania, but also, the Romanian language evolved from Latin.

What is Romania today? Come to see and don’t believe all “political” stories.

Vladimireşti Monastery

Vladimireşti Monastery is situated between Galati and Tecuci, at 4 km from Tudor Vladimirescu commune. This monastery is one which has the greatest number of nuns of Romania, after Agapia and Varatec. Its history is in connection with the life of Veronica Barbu Gurau (in 1941, she took the veil to become Mother Veronica).

In summer of 1936 there was a drought. One particularly hot day Vasilica came running into the village announcing a miracle: she has seen the Holy Virgin, Jesus and an old man, God, in a beam of light which turned into flame when touching the earth on the Gurgueta Hill outside the village! They had given her a command to pass on to the people: to build a convent and dedicate it to the Holy Virgin, for the redemption of Romania. They told her the country would be faced with terrible trials in the coming years so the nuns should pray unceasingly for mercy. The nuns should never number more than 200 and the church, cells and convent were to be the work of their own hands. Work began that very week. She carved a cross on the bark of the old tree where God had spoken to her and the news of her vision spread. Girls from nearby villages came to help her and the peasants gave them the land with the tree.

After being closed by communist regime in 1956, on Christmas Day of 1989, just three days after the Romanian Revolution, the nuns, lead by Mother Veronica, were returning to their rightful home, to their place where, in their hearts, they wanted to celebrate the birth of Christ. They found their monastery in a poor condition. It had been used as a home for mentally handicapped children and the church had been used as a gymnasium and storage area. The tiled floor was damaged, the stained-glass windows smashed and the frescoes deteriorated. But there were some surprises - a portrait of King Mihai still hung just inside the doorway, covered throughout the communist period by another picture, and many of the icons had been kept safely by villagers and were now returned. Many of the original nuns joined her together with several younger girls.

Nowadays, Vladimireşti is an incredible working community which is largely self-sufficient.

[Ref.: http://www.manastirea-vladimiresti.go.ro/vladimiresti-eng.htm]