It is said that the icons, by the divine grace they have, choose their own places from where they can manifest their powers of blessing and consolation. It so happened that one icon of the Mother of God has remained on our lands from the end of the 18th century, when the battles of the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1791 took place here. The circumstances of the appearance of this icon in Bessarabia are confirmed by several historical references, from which it follows that the Russian officer N.A. Albaduev, a participant in the military campaign, brought this icon here with him, and after his death his relatives – the colonel’s wife or his mother – gave this icon to the monastery, where he suddenly died when he came there on Christmas to receive communion. The icon of the Mother of God was initially placed in the old wooden church, where the officer’s grave was located, and then was placed in the new Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, built and consecrated in 1816.
Soon the icon became very popular, and its fame increased enormously thanks to the healings that occurred thanks to the intercession of the Mother of God; the names of the healed people, their place of residence and sufferings were described in periodicals. Archimandrite Seraphim, hegumen of the monastery in from 1805 to 1827, mentioned the special veneration of the icon of the Mother of God from the Hârbovăţ Monastery by Orthodox people who are always looking for help and intercession from this icon of the Empress of The World. Believers called it a wonder-making icon even before the Holy Synod issued Decree No. 526 of January 26, 1859, signed by Emperor Alexander II, proclaiming the icon of the Our Lady of Hârbovăţ as the Wonder-Making. Recognizing the miraculous properties of this icon, the Holy Synod also organized religious processions with the delivery of the icon to Chişinău on October 1 and its subsequent return to the monastery on April 23.
The icon of the Mother of God of Hârbovăţ is one of the earliest and most popular types of the Theotokos icons, that of Hodegetria. In this iconographic depiction, the Mother of God and the Child are presented in a frontal position, looking at the one who is praying. The Mother of God holds the Child on Her left hand, and with Her right hand points to Him, the Child blesses with His right hand, holding in His left hand a sacred scroll – a symbol of the Gospel. Regarding the images, it should be said that the icons of the Herbovets Mother of God differ from the traditional icons of the Hodegetria type in a special relationship between the characters, their mutual affection is expressed in poses, in the tilt of the heads, in the gentle expression of the Child’s face. We can say that in the iconography of the Mother of God of Hârbovăţ, features of two different types of Theotokos are harmoniously combined: the Mother of God Hodegetria, or Our Lady of the Way, and the Mother of God Eleusa, or the Virgin of Tenderness.
Exact copies of this icon are still kept in the summer church of the Noul Neamţ Monastery in the village of Chiţcani (Căuşeni), in the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Church in the village of Sîrcova (Rezina), in the All Saints Church in Chişinău (early 20th century), in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolgrad, in the Transfiguration Monastery in Tatarbunary, in the Saint Paraskeva Church in the village of Furatovka (Odessa Oblast), in the Saint Archangel Michael Monastery in Odessa, in the Ascension Monastery in Teplodar (Ukraine), in the Holy Trinity Monastery in the village of Mramor, near Topolovgrad (Bulgaria), in the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Tyron Cathedral in Chişinău, in the Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Ungheni, and other churches.
On publishing activity of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (1808-1812, 1813-1821) and the presence of old Romanian books in the collections of Northern Dobrudja
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2015
Abstract
One of the factors which contributed to the support of the Romanians and their culture in Bessarabia was the Church, and Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (born 1746 <1750?> died 1821, ChiТinău) was deeply aware of it, bringing the area between the Prut and Dniester to the consciousness and spirituality of the Romanian space before and especially after 1812.
In 1808-1812, after his appointment as a member of the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg and exarch of Moldavia and Wallachia (March 27 1808), in terms of establishing a Russian military occupation regime in the Romanian principalities, the great hierarch initiated the cultural program for the dissemination of Romanian books published in Moldavian printing centers (Iași, Neamț). He successfully led the Archdiocese of Moldavia prior to the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest on May 16, 1812.
As a patron, editor, preface writer and translator, Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni published several Romanian books during this period. Copies of some publications we found in the secular and monastic collections in Northern Dobrudja: Cărticică pentru datoria și stăpânirea blagocinilor (Booklet about the duty and power of rural deans) (Iaѯi, 1808) and Carte de rugăciuni pentru cerere de biruință (Book of Prayers for Victory) (IaТi, 1809) at the Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute from Tulcea; Kyriakodromion (Sunday Book) (Neamt, 1811) and volumes from the Lives of the Saints (Viețile Sfinților) (Neamt, 1807-1815) at the monasteries of Celic Dere and CocoТ, established in the first decades of the 19th century. These publications must have been common in Bessarabia too, but most of them were destroyed during the Russian rule.
But the most important cultural and historical activities of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni occurred in the first years after the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire in 1812, after the creation of the new Archbishopry of ChiТinău and Khotin, the head of which he was appointed on August 21, 1813 and remained until the end of his life. On May 31, 1814 the Diocesan Printing House was opened in ChiТinău, with the purpose of printing religious books in Romanian, which should have been translated from the Old Church Slavonic. Under the Metropolitan's leadership, sometimes deceiving the vigilance of the Holy Synod, there were published several books, including Liturghierul (Liturgikon) in 1815, a copy of which is kept in the monastery of Celic Dere, the Tulcea County.
On both sides of the Prut there also circulated editions of the New Testament (1817, 1819) and the Bible (1819) printed by the Russian Bible Society in St. Petersburg and intended for the Romanians in Bessarabia; their publisher and proofreader was also Gavriil. The collection of Tulcea museum contains one copy of the Bible and the New Testament of 1819 edition, and in Celic Dere there are three copies of the New Testament of 1817 edition.
In our opinion, the presence of books published under the patronage of Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni in Northern Dobrudja can only be explained by two major aspects: by the personality of the Metropolitan, who fought for the preservation of Romanian spirit in Bessarabia by means of language, culture and the Church, and by the fact that the books entered this area from or through Moldavia more intensely than from other Romanian provinces.
List of illustrations: 1. Booklet about the duty and power of rural deans, Iaѯi, 1808. Title page (Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute, Tulcea). 2-3. Book of Prayers for victory, IaТi, 1809. Front and back sides of the title page (Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute, Tulcea).
4. Kyriakodromion, Neamt, 1811. Title page (Cocoѯ Monastery, Tulcea). 5. The Lives of the Saints for the month of October, Neamț, 1809. Title page (Celic Dere Monastery, Tulcea). 6-7. Liturgikon, ChiТinău, 1815. Front and back sides of the title page (Celic Dere Monastery, Tulcea).
It is said that the icons, by the divine grace they have, choose their own places from where they can manifest their powers of blessing and consolation. It so happened that one icon of the Mother of God has remained on our lands from the end of the 18th century, when the battles of the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1791 took place here. The circumstances of the appearance of this icon in Bessarabia are confirmed by several historical references, from which it follows that the Russian officer N.A. Albaduev, a participant in the military campaign, brought this icon here with him, and after his death his relatives – the colonel’s wife or his mother – gave this icon to the monastery, where he suddenly died when he came there on Christmas to receive communion. The icon of the Mother of God was initially placed in the old wooden church, where the officer’s grave was located, and then was placed in the new Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, built and consecrated in 1816..
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
