Easter with Stefan cel Mare

I returned last week from Bucovina, in the far north of Romania, where I spent Orthodox Easter with my family, my godson and his brother and parents, who were visiting from the UK.

There can be few better places in the world to spend Easter than among the fabled painted monasteries of Bucovina. Here five centuries of Christian tradition are wonderfully preserved and celebrated among the hills that once formed the centre and stronghold of one of Romania’s foremost leaders, the 15th century Prince of Moldova, Stefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great).

Stefan himself is buried at Putna, one of over forty monasteries that he founded. We visited on Good Friday and attended the service in the church. Stefan founded the monastery to give thanks for a victory over the Turks. The monks there have seen off attacks from Cossacks and Communism in the five centuries since and kept the traditions of Orthodoxy alive.

In their museum they keep one of the foremost collections of medieval embroidery in the world, including the very coverings and vestments that Stephen gave to the monastery at its foundation. Looking at these objects in this peaceful place in a timeless landscape, five hundred years seems but a moment and the Princedom of Stephen the Great seems so close you could almost touch it.

Bucovina is dotted with the monasteries of his foundation or of his sons’. We visited Voronet, where we had a wonderful explanation of the mural paintings from one of the nuns in the community there. We saw the Arbore Church with its remarkable frescoes of the life of Emperor Constantine and the seven early Councils of the Church.

And on Easter night itself we went to Sucevita, the last of painted monasteries beautifully preserved behind its massive fortified walls, to receive the holy fire and celebrate the mystery of the Resurrection. The rain fell on the congregation as we gathered around the chapel, but hundreds still came, lighting lamps from the sacred flame to take back to their homes.

„Lumina sfântă în casă!” as the Romanian greeting goes (“May the Holy light enter your home”).