Introduction

The refuge, the moment of finding your own soul again, begins with a simple glance raised humbly towards the heights that hide the sacred mystery towards which the soul has travelled.

So, whenever you return to these places that have kept the mystery of faith for centuries, you step outside time: here a moment is measured by the endless echo of the bell hung between sunrise and sunset; here time falls silent and only eternity speaks. Then your gaze is lost in a natural setting beyond words, until existence becomes a perfect harmony — of stone that speaks of stability and eternity, of water that carries the purity of the depths, of green growth full of life — and you find yourself on your knees before the Creator of this perfection, and feel your soul set free, as if flying through air filled with the holiness of prayer.

Losing yourself, you find yourself again in the forefathers of our people, whose voice rings out from the depths, proclaiming the faith they carried; their gaze seems to rise through the roots towards heaven, asking forgiveness for us too. You may also find yourself in the overwhelming peace and quiet that “trembles” only when the toaca sounds, or when crowds of Christians come in search of comfort. If you lift your eyes, you see the blue of the sky hanging from buttresses, and the infinity of space between heaven and earth held within the guardian crosses that keep watch over passing time.

Here, too, the spring will whisper holy mysteries to you through its flowing water as it cuts its way through the stone, and you will lose yourself in the clear music that comes from the heart of the earth, and perhaps you will let your tears fall — for until the eyes are washed with tears, you cannot see the rainbow of the soul. And if you do not find yourself in nature, there is something more: the ever-open doors of the holy churches, which, bathed in the cleansing scent of incense, bring you divine revelation through the prayer of those chosen to kneel, and through their faith in asking forgiveness in the name of all.

And in the full splendour of this atmosphere of holiness and mystery, where darkness is driven out by faith and by the light of the lamps that seem to have burned forever, it is here that you come to understand how immense God’s love for us was, that He came down even unto death. Then, before you leave, do not forget to gather a drop of light, of quiet, of faith, so that you carry in your soul what you found here — peace…

This holy monastery, full of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, a meeting of piety and self-giving, where prayer that builds up the soul is woven together with work that builds up light out of stone and wood — Saharna is an icon of the Orthodox Christian soul of Bessarabia at the turn of the millennia, a hope for a blessed future, a holy place where nature joins the Church in Liturgies served by the holy ministers, with the springs and the forests serving alongside them in the great worship of the Creator.

The Nistru valley is the legendary land of the Moldovan soul. Beyond the hills, the forests and the springs there is another, deeper geography — the geography of feeling. At the foundation of all of these — waterfalls, forests, feelings — lie faith and love. Here, in these places, people and things are at peace with themselves. The holy house of Saharna Monastery brings the Nistru valley one step closer to God. A monastery of monks is the beginning of rebuilding what once was: a hearth of Orthodoxy in a true “foot of the hills, at the mouth of paradise”. Here, as in other wondrous places of the country, we better understand the place of our people, between God and our piece of earth.

At Saharna, Orthodoxy is worthy of its tradition, and the Bessarabian soul breathes towards a dawn full of hope. It is proof that we can still answer our times in our own tongue, with that essential simplicity by which faith and deed, joined in pure union, are worthy to enter, with their lamps full, the chamber of the Heavenly Bridegroom.

Saharna Monastery is a gift and a blessing of God not only for our right-believing people, with their ancient churches and holy ministers who have kept the unity of the people and of its apostolic faith; it is a gift and a blessing of God for the whole Christian world, and above all for the Orthodox Church, a martyr through the witness it has given for Christ across the centuries of its troubled history.

Welcome!

This monastery is the place where the beautiful, life-giving love of the Holy Trinity pours out upon all who cross its threshold with faith. Here the prosphora and the wine, fruits of the earth and of your labour, become the Body and Blood of Christ, received for the renewal of life and for eternal blessedness. Here you receive the true good tidings through the Virgin Mother, who knows you as sons and heirs of her Son’s Kingdom.

From the home page of the monastery’s former website.