#Exhibit of the Month

The history of this icon traces back to the 10th century at the Protaton Monastery on Mount Athos. In one of the cells named "The Dormition of the Mother of God," an elderly hieromonk lived with his disciple. They preserved a superb depiction of the Virgin Mary. This old icon became renowned through the revelation of the prayer "It Is Truly Meet."
Between the years 980-982, on a Saturday evening before an all-night vigil, the elder monk left for the nearby church, instructing his disciple to continue the religious routine in the cell. Being obedient, the disciple followed the instructions. When he reached the 9th Ode of the Canons, "More Honorable Than the Cherubim...," he suddenly heard someone beginning to chant alongside him: "It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos..." It was a mysterious pilgrim monk who had appeared unexpectedly and joined in the prayers. At that moment, the icon began to radiate light, as if it were broad daylight. Astonished by the events, the disciple asked the mysterious monk to write down the verses. The monk wrote them on a tile with his finger as if it were soft wax and said, "From now on, this is how you Orthodox Christians should chant," and, saying this, he vanished. Left alone, the disciple realized he had witnessed a great miracle. Enlightened, he understood that the pilgrim was none other than the Archangel Gabriel, who had come, as he had before, to deliver the word of the Highest to humanity.

The icon was transferred from the cell to the Holy Altar of the Protaton Church, where a similar icon is preserved to this day. The tile with the divine hymn was taken to Constantinople and included in the Orthodox Church's liturgical books. Soon after, Archangel Gabriel's prayer was incorporated into the Divine Liturgy, immediately following the Consecration of the Gifts of Bread and Wine. The valley with the cells has since been called Adin, meaning "to chant," "chanting."

The icon "It Is Truly Meet" is of inestimable value and has become the protector of Mount Athos. The icon is celebrated on June 11/24, commemorating the miraculous appearance of the Archangel, and on July 13/26, in honor of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel.

This icon, of the Eleusa type, portrays gentleness and tenderness in its central figures. The Virgin holds the Child with her right hand, while her left hand, placed beneath His feet, grips the hem of His tunic. The small Jesus wears a short tunic reaching His knees and holds a scroll in His right hand inscribed with the words of the Axion hymn. His left-hand slips under the veil of the Virgin towards her left shoulder. Both figures are crowned with golden halos. Two angels flank the Virgin's halo, while the Almighty in an open heaven blesses with both hands.

Crafted using tempera on wood, the icon is adorned with gold leaf and multicolored enamel, giving the image a unique delicacy. The inscription on the lower frame indicates that the icon was created by the painter Ioasaf in 1905.

The painter monk Ioasaf Berghie (1862-?) of the New Neamț Monastery resided there between 1887 and the 1940s, occupying three rooms to set up his studio, where he worked continuously on icons and church artworks. Born into the family of a church teacher in Jabca village, Ștefan Berghie, Ioan Berghie developed a passion for sacred iconography from an early age. In 1890, Andronic, the abbot of the New Neamț Monastery, blessed him to paint icons. Taking monastic vows in 1895 under the name Ioasaf, he traveled by foot to visit major ecclesiastical centers nearby and further afield, learning the art of iconography. Starting with naive-style interpretations, he eventually mastered professional painting techniques and acquired new decorative skills. His works became highly popular throughout Bessarabia and abroad. Painting a significant number of icons, they were often mistakenly sold as coming from major artisan workshops. To prevent such confusion, he received the abbot's blessing to sign his works, earning recognition and fame for his name.

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Exhibitions

„Testimonies from the Gulag. The memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime"

4 July - 31 August 2019

The National Museum of History of Moldova opened on July 4, 2019, the exhibition „Testimonies from the Gulag. The memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime".

The establishment of the Soviet occupation regime in the territory left of the Prut River had dramatic consequences that are still visible in the present in the Moldovan society. The politics of repression and forced Soviet actions began with the adoption in the period between August 26 and November 4, 1940 of three decisions on the recruitment of 59,500 people, mostly from rural areas, as workforce for the carbon and steel industry in USSR. On June 12-13, 1941, in 6 Bessarabian counties incorporated into the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, 4,507 persons were arrested and 13,885 persons were deported. The second wave of deportations took place on July 5-9, 1949, on the basis of a top secret decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, where 35,796 persons were deported to Siberia and northern Kazakhstan, of which 11,889 were children. On the night of March 31 to April 1, 1951, the third wave of deportations followed, this time on confessional grounds, with the repression of 2,617 people, including 842 children, members of religious organizations considered illegal and anti-Soviet. The cereal requisition policy, established by the Council of People's Commissars of the Moldavian SSR and the Central Committee of the Communist (b) Party of Moldova of April 9, 1945, obliges the peasants to surrender to the state the required cereal quotas - the so-called postavka. Failure to comply with these decisions implied punishment of peasants according to Art. 58 and 58-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, and the famine in the years 1946-1947 was caused by the abusive policy of the Soviet state of collecting peasant grain. The number of people who died from hunger and illness between December 1946 and August 1947 ranges from 115,000 to 250,000; adding to these 350,000 other victims of malnutrition; during the famine were recorded 39 cases of cannibalism.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Testimonies from the Gulag: the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime" presents the testimonies of the victims and survivors of political repressions and mass deportations during the Soviet period. The images and documents exhibited from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova and the documents valorized within the State Program "Historical recovery and valorization of the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR during the period 1940-1941, 1944-1953" present to the general public the horrors of the totalitarian-Soviet regime and the memory of this tragic period in our people's history.

The exhibition is devoted to the sad anniversary of the second wave of deportation of July 5 to 9, 1949, and to the memory of all the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime.

The exhibition was developed in the framework of the project "The culture of memory for the societies in process of democratic transformation: promotion of best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova", supported by the Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Moldova.

Institutional partners:

National Museum of History of Moldova
Institute of History
Center for Excellence Institute ProMemoria, Moldova State University
State University „Alecu Russo" from Bălți
State University „B.P. Hasdeu" from Cahul

* The term GULAG is used from the Russian language with the original meaning of the Main Administration of Labor Camps on the territory of the USSR, which has considerably expanded its content after 1989 by designating the emblematic area of detention in any form, including deportations, prisons, forced residence regime, restriction of the right to choose the place of work and living, etc.