Nisporeni, Moldova, October 28, 2022
Photo: mitropolia.md
Hierarchs and clergy from Moldova and Ukraine gathered yesterday to festively celebrate the 30th anniversary of the revival of a monastery in west-central Moldova.
His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Chișinău and All Moldova (Moscow Patriarchate) led the Divine Liturgy at the St. Parascheva-Hîncu Monastery yesterday with several other Moldovan hierarchs and His Eminence Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Ismail of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reports the Moldovan Church.
The hierarchs were also joined by clergy from Moldova and Ukraine.
Photo: mitropolia.md
The monastery was founded as a convent in 1678. After it was ruined by the Tatar invasion, it was reborn as a men’s monastery in 1784. In April 1944, the persecution of the monks began. Most were arrested, and some were evacuated. The monastery was closed in September 1949. After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was reborn as a men’s monastery on September 10, 1992.
“During the Liturgy, prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God were offered for the gifts and blessings mercifully showered upon the holy Hîncu Monastery in the 30 years since its reopening,” the Church reports. Prayers were also offered for peace in Ukraine.
At the Little Entrance, Met. Vladimir decorated His Eminence Archbishop Petru of Ungheni, who was also celebrating his 55th birthday, with the Order of St. Gabriel of Bănulescu and Bodoni for his labors in rebuilding the monastery. Abbess Parascheva was granted the right to wear a second pectoral cross as a sign of gratitude for her diligent work for the good of the Moldovan Church.
Relics of St. Parascheva were carried in procession around the church following the Liturgy, with a Te Deum of thanks to God and St. Parascheva.
Photo: mitropolia.md
Met. Agafangel of the Ukrainian Church then offered a congratulatory speech, and on behalf of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, he decorated Abp. Petru with the Order of St. Nicholas, and Abbess Parascheva with the Medal of St. Olga.
The press service of the Diocese of Odessa also notes that the St. Parascheva Monastery has given refuge to hundreds from Odessa since the start of the war in February.
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