#Exhibit of the Month

The Chișinău Diocesan Girls' School opened its doors on May 3, 1864, addressing a pressing need: in Bessarabia there were no institutions dedicated to the education of clergy's daughters. According to the 1864 circular, teaching was conducted in the Romanian language, a provision applied throughout the diocese. The school's first headmistress was Anastasia Rizo, of noble origin, invited by Archbishop Antonie.

The curriculum, approved by the Ministry of Public Education and the Chișinău Diocese, combined theoretical subjects with practical training. Students studied religion, reading and writing in Romanian, Slavonic, and Russian, arithmetic and exercises in calculation, world history and geography. The program was complemented by church singing and practical skills such as sewing, embroidery, knitting, as well as household management - baking bread and prosphora, preparing meals and preserves, caring for livestock, and cultivating gardens.

The composite, taken in 1911 at the studio of Z. N. Sumovski in Chișinău, depicts 29 graduates and 13 teachers. At the center are portraits of Bishop Serafim (Ciciagov), headmistress N. R. Mihelson, teacher V. E. Bejerian, and priests F. Ghiliarov and P. Jurikas. Among the teaching staff was Paraskovia Vasilievna Cuciurenko, a calligraphy teacher for 37 years, who in 1911 became senior educator and assistant headmistress. For her dedication, she was awarded the gold medal "For Long Service."

On the reverse of the vignette is a label from the store and workshop of frames, paintings, mirrors, and window glass owned by A. D. Kon'gova, Chișinău, Gogol Street no. 37, near the State Bank.

This graduation composite was donated at the end of 2025 to the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Dadiștian family from Drochia.

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Publications

Library „Tyragetia"

Maria Danilov

Synodal Censorship and Religious Book in Bessarabia, 1812-1918 (Between the Tradition and Tsarist Policy)

Series “Biblioteca “Tyragetia” XIII, Chisinau, 2007, 264 p. ISBN 978-9975-80-073-0.

The work aims to elucidate some significant historical, political, confessional, and cultural aspects, which affected the religious books in Bessarabia. The work is conceived and written in academic manner; the factual material, for the most part, was found in the archives from Chisinau and Odessa and elucidates an unstudied page from the history of Bessarabia under the tsarist regime in 1812 – 1918.

The work contain: six chapters divided into seventeen sections; Conclusion; Bibliography; List of Abbreviations; Annex of Unedited Documents; indices: alphabetic, chronological (places and titles), and of proper names; summaries in the English and Russian languages. The Introduction was written by the academician Andrei Esanu.

For the whole period of the 19th century the Eparchial Printing House of Bessarabia was the only legal ecclesiastic and cultural institution that published books in Romanian. But in 1814 – 1918 the publishing of religious books in Bessarabia existed in the atmosphere of permanent struggle between the tradition and tsarist policy: religious life in this Romanian province was strained by the struggle for defense of the spiritual identity. In spite of the synodal censorship’s restrictions, the publishing of religious books in the Eparchial Printing House of Bessarabia was the continuation of old traditions – in the language and rite – of the country’s church.