The whole of Oltenia is home to numerous Orthodox places of worship, built from the dawn of the Middle Ages right up to the modern era by numerous princes, nobles or clergy who wished to link their names, for all eternity, to the founding of a church or monastery where prayer might be perpetuated through the devotion of Christ-loving nuns and monks. And whilst the attention of everyone—from the historians who have studied the ecclesiastical architecture of the region to the pilgrims seeking oases of peace and contemplation—has focused primarily on the courtly foundations in Oltenia, the smaller monasteries—built either by lower-ranking boyars, townspeople or free peasants, or by the hierarchs of Oltenia—have remained less well-researched. Among the isolated and little-known monastic settlements is the one in the village of Popânzălești, situated on the border between the counties of Olt and Dolj, a locality that once belonged to the former county of Romanați. It is likely that, had Saint Calinic of Cernica not made a vital contribution to the reconstruction of the old hermitage belonging to the boyar Hamza, dedicating it to the Diocese of Râmnic, and had, later on, Metropolitan Nestor Vornicescu had not added his name to those of the monastery’s benefactors, the monastery would have remained virtually unknown to this day.
Under the patronage of Saint Gregory the Decapolite, Popânzălești Monastery is situated within the village of the same name, which is now part of the commune of Drăgotești, situated some 20 kilometres from the town of Balș and 30 kilometres from Caracal, on National Road 65, Craiova–Slatina. The monastic settlement is situated on the eastern side of the village, from which it is separated only by the bed of the River Teslui. Local tradition holds that the so-called ‘Novac’s Furrow’ runs through the forest of ancient trees surrounding the monastery founded by Saint Calinic of Cernica, that is, a system of fortifications from the Roman period, built around the year 330. The Brazdă crosses the plateaus between the rivers Teslui and Olteț, running through the forest to the east of the villages of Popânzălești, Bobeanu and Bănești. The wooded hill, at the foot of which lies the plateau on which the monastic complex is situated, forms a veritable natural amphitheatre. The path leading to the church is flanked by stately trees, standing as straight as candles. On the left-hand side, surrounded by a small park full of flowers, stands the new abbot’s residence. Also on this side, as a testament to rural life of yesteryear, there is an old well with a wooden bucket. Immediately behind the abbot’s residence, in front of the church on the north-western side, stands the monastery’s new bell tower. On the right-hand side of the path leading to the church, a new block of cells and a wooden wayside shrine have been built. In front of the church, on the south-eastern side, a tall fir tree stands watch, a silent witness to many events in the monastery’s history. At the entrance, a gazebo has been added, supported by round log columns painted white.
The history of this monastic settlement is naturally linked to that of the place where it was founded and dates back to the second half of the 17th century. Part of Wallachia, Oltenia had, since medieval times, its capital in Craiova, also known as the seat of the ‘bani’, that is, the Craiovești boyars, vassals of the voivode, who wielded great power and local influence. The boyar Hamza, the first founder of Popânzălești Monastery, was a descendant of these Craiova bans.
The village of Popânzălești is first mentioned in a document in 1612, that is, during the first reign of Radu Mihnea in Wallachia, when a certain Itovoe (transcribed as Stroe in a copy of the document) from Popânzălești is recorded in a charter as a witness to an exchange of Gypsies between the prince and Priest Stoica of Fărcaș, a captain in the army of Mihai Viteazul. Another documentary attestation of the village is recorded in a document dated 16 June 1832, in which ‘Stan ot Popânzălești’ is mentioned amongst the witnesses to the sale of the village of Broșteni, situated on the estate of Căluiu Monastery. In the 19th century, the present-day settlement was divided into Popânzălești de Sus and Popânzălești de Jos. It appears that this was a village that was half free-holding – that is, populated by free peasants who owned land – and half serf-holding, that is, populated by serfs.
The link between the village of Popânzălești and the monastery that bears its name has proved to be very close ever since the settlement was founded in the second half of the 17th century. Among the founders and benefactors of the monastery were also minor boyars who owned property in Popânzălești. The bond between the locals and the monastery, which was founded with their support, was to endure to the present day.
In Popânzăleștiul Romanaților, the monastery’s first founder, Hamza, was a local boyar, a descendant of the great Craiovești family – renowned nobles of great wealth and a passion for building. Gheorghe Șincai wrote of them in 1853, in The Chronicle of the Romanians, that they were ‘a great family’ and ‘above all, God-fearing’. Following in the footsteps of his forebears, the logothete Hamza Popânzălescu founded the monks’ hermitage at Malul Vârtopului in 1678, which, by no means by chance, he placed under the patronage of Saint Gregory the Decapolite. The saint’s relics had been brought to Bistrița Monastery, the great lavra of Oltenia, by Barbu Craiovescu, Hamza’s ancestor. And, following the example of his forebears, Barbu and his wife, Neguța Neagoslava—who had taken monastic vows under the names Pahomie and Salomeea—the logothete Hamza chose, in his old age, to enter the monastic order, receiving the name Ioan at his tonsure.
The church of the hermitage, founded in 1678 and dedicated from the outset to the Diocese of Râmnic, had been built of wood, in keeping with the architectural tradition of the area. Documentary evidence of its existence in the 17th century is provided by the charter issued by Saint Voivode Constantin Brâncoveanu in 1695, a document confirming that the boyar Hamza Popânzălescu had endowed his foundation with all the necessary provisions, whilst also granting it ownership of the village itself.
In the absence of definitive documentary evidence, it may be assumed that monastic life continued uninterrupted at this hermitage for over a century. Presumably, following this initial period of the monastery’s existence, the wooden church fell into disrepair, a circumstance which, in 1799, prompted Archimandrite Methodius of the Diocese of Râmnic to erect, also made of wood, a new church for the hermitage at Popânzălești, to which he dedicated a second patron saint, Saint Gregory the Theologian. The documents mention a more extensive intervention by Archimandrite Methodius at the settlement, as he had also overseen the restoration of the cells, building ‘a pair of houses on stone foundations, covered with oak shingles, fastened with iron nails, rooms with beds, stoves and glazed windows’1 The author notes that the church was built from the foundations up by Dumitrache Viișoreanu and his family. This refers, of course, to the wealthy local family who had contributed financially to the restoration of the monastery later, in 1853, on the initiative of Saint Calinic. Among the assets of Popânzălești Monastery, the inventory drawn up by Father Popescu Cilieni in 1943 lists: “1 small estate at Popânzălești on which the hermitage is built, with a productive forest, 2 small vineyards on the estate, one of which is in a state of neglect, 200 ocă of salt from Ocnele Mari, from Alecsandru Vodă Șuțu”.
The renowned art historian Tereza Sinigalia notes in her work Repertory of Architecture in Wallachia (1600–1680), that Popânzălești Monastery existed during the period described: “The Church of Saint Nicholas belonged to an old hermitage of monks, founded in 1678 by Hamza Popânzălescu, together with his sons, Iacov and Istrate, and rebuilt by Archimandrite Metodie in the final years of the 18th century, according to the inscription which still exists”.
In 1850, Saint Calinic was installed on the episcopal throne at the Saint Nicholas Gănescu Hermitage in Craiova, a former theological seminary and currently the seat of the University of Bănie. During the four years he spent in the capital of Oltenia, Saint Calinic longed for the tranquillity of the Cernica woods, his home monastery. During a canonical visit to Popânzălești, the Bishop of Râmnic was struck by the beauty and tranquillity of the hermitage, surrounded by the forest on the edge of Vârtop, and entrusted Hieromonk Lavrentie, a native of Popânzălești, with the task of rebuilding the hermitage’s church in stone. To this end, he endowed the pious monk Lavrentie with 3,000 gold coins. The bricks for the construction of the church were fired right on the site itself. The work took two years, and on 15 July 1853, Saint Calinic performed the consecration service. The new church was also placed under the protection of Saint Nicholas. The inscription, written in the transitional alphabet and situated inside the church on the west wall, above the entrance door, records the restoration of the church during the ministry of Saint Calinic of Cernica:
To the glory of the Holy and Life-giving Trinity, this holy church was built from the ground up, dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Hierarch and the Most Venerable Gregory the Decapolite and Gregory the Theologian, in place of the one which had fallen into ruin through neglect over the years; this having been built previously by His Holiness Father Methodius, Archimandrite of the Holy Diocese of Râmnic, on 13 November 1799, and now, in the days of our Lord Barbu D. Știrbei Voivode and of the Most Reverend and God-loving Bishop of Râmnic, His Grace Calinic, have granted permission and their blessing to His Holiness Father Lavrentie, the ecclesiarch of the Holy Diocese of Râmnic, so that through his zeal and labours, with the aid previously gathered by the lovers of holy places, to rebuild this holy monastic hermitage known as Popânzălești, a metochion of the Holy Diocese of Râmnic, where works have been carried out and it has been adorned with ornaments and other items, as can be seen; Mr G. Dimitriu and other benefactors having also contributed to all this, which has been recorded in the register for eternal remembrance, this painting was carried out at the expense of Mr Iliodor Periețeanu, and was painted by myself, Ignatie Zeregovicz, with the assistance of Father Enachie, 15 July 1853.
As the inscription shows, among the benefactors of Popânzălești Monastery in the nineteenth century was Iliodor Periețeanu, a descendant of the landowners of Popânzălești, and thus a local nobleman whose likeness we find painted in the narthex, amongst the founders. The original painting, now hidden beneath two layers of mediocre tempera work, had been executed by Ignatie Zeregovicz and a priest named Enache. Another essential visual record of any church, the founders’ painting on the west wall of the narthex, depicts him amongst the founders, alongside Saint Calinic, the hieromonk Lavrentie, Prince Barbu Știrbei, the boyar Iliodor Periețeanu, and the couple Dumitru and Stanca, local merchants and donors. As early as 1852, the monk brothers Constantin and Florea from Frăsinei Monastery painted the imperial icons for Popânzălești Monastery, icons which are still preserved in the church today. One of them depicts Saints Gregory the Decapolite and Gregory the Theologian, the patron saints of the monastery, side by side. The chapel of the Diocese of Râmnic, built in 1751 by Bishop Grigorie Socoteanu, former abbot of Cozia Monastery, is also dedicated to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory the Theologian in the Slavic world. His selection as the patron saint is therefore by no means coincidental, just as the choice of Saint Gregory the Decapolite suggests the devotion of the faithful and the hierarchs to this great intercessor, enshrined for worship since the Middle Ages in the great Lavra of Bistrița.
The monastic settlement at Popânzălești, rebuilt by Saint Calinic, remains a dependency of the Diocese of Râmnic, owning 1,000 hectares of arable land and 130 hectares of woodland, assets which were confiscated under the 1864 Law on the Secularisation of Monastic Property. Monastic life continued at Popânzălești, though unfortunately only for ten years after the monastery’s re-establishment. The community of monks was replaced, probably in 1862, by a community of nuns, as recorded by Cezar Bolliac in his book Monasteries of Romania:
Whilst in Romanați, I also visited the Popândălesci hermitage. Here I found a radical transformation. Instead of monks, as stipulated in the statutes, I found nuns who showed us that they were receiving their stipends regularly. But how did it come to pass that nuns remained in place of monks? According to the abbess there, they had been at a hermitage called Slătioarele, and the Bishop had dissolved that hermitage, seizing all the documents relating to the monastery’s assets by order and leasing out for himself the estate that the nuns had owned. As for the nuns, they were sent to Popândălesci.
In the same, still somewhat hesitant 19th-century Romanian, Cezar Bolliac requested that the Minister for Religious Affairs conduct an inquiry at Popândălești, in order to ‘uncover many things here that would be useful for you to know’.
Cuza’s secularisation of 1864 led to the dissolution of the monastery at Popânzălești, the dispersal of the monks and the conversion of the settlement into the village’s parish church. A nephew of Abbot Lavrentie, Father Constantin Ștefănescu, became the parish priest of the church. The villagers noticed, to the east of the altar, several stone crosses belonging to the monks of the monastery and decided to move the village cemetery around the church, as can still be seen today.
Until the monastery was re-established, over the 128 years that the building served as a parish church, only a few repairs were carried out. Thus, in 1925, the church was roofed with galvanised sheet metal, and between 1964 and 1965, the painter Veniamin Precup added a new coat of paint over the original murals. During the 1977 earthquake, the church was seriously damaged, leading to a necessary but utterly uninspired restoration. In 1984, another unfortunate event took place. The communist state decided to confiscate the monastery’s precious metal artefacts and deposit them with the National Bank of Romania. Two years before the monastery regained its original status, a second restoration of the frescoes added yet another layer of tempera over the original paintwork.
It was not until 1992 that a momentous event took place in the history of the monastery. At the proposal of Metropolitan Nestor Vornicescu, the Holy Synod approved the re-establishment of the monastery at its meeting on 23–26 January. The decision was put into effect on 8 June 1992 when, again at the suggestion of Metropolitan Nestor Vornicescu, the church was dedicated to Saint Calinic of Cernica. Fanurie Chiriță, then a young rasophore, was tonsured a monk and became the abbot of Popânzălești. Thanks to the diligence of the monks here, the frescoes were restored in 1999, followed by the reconsecration of the church on 14 October. On this occasion, Saint Parascheva of Iași was added to the list of the church’s patron saints.
The church of Popânzălești Monastery appears on the List of Historic Monuments in Dolj County under the reference number: ‘DJ-II-m-B-08345’. Both the church building erected in 1852 in an eclectic style and the earlier wooden one, dating from 1799, justify the inclusion of the monastic complex on this list.
In 1878, in Antiquities of Romanați County, Al. I. Odobescu noted, following a visit to Popânzălești, that, being situated in the Olteț district, the hermitage there “is of secondary importance”. A brief description of the monastery’s exterior is also provided in the pages of this book: ‘this hermitage is enclosed by a wall to the east, north and south, whilst on the west side there is a building, in the centre of which is a large arch serving as the gateway to the church courtyard”. We gather from this description that the monastery was enclosed by a wall on three sides—east, north and south—the ruins of which can still be seen in some places. On the western side, as is still the case today, stood the entrance gate to the monastery grounds, set within an arched vault. Around the same time, towards the end of the 19th century, V. A. Urechia, in turn, recorded the existence of the monastery: “The Popendiaescii Skete has a church, founded in 1853 by the abbot Laurentie, in which portraits and murals of Prince Stirbeiu and the founders are depicted.”
At present, the monastic complex at Popânzălești is surrounded solely by the magnificent forest of centuries-old trees that slopes down from the hill to the east of the church. The church has a triconch plan. The apses have large windows cut into their walls, although the windows were probably much narrower originally. The church has no narthex, but only a passageway leading from the entrance to the narthex. The bell tower stands above the entrance. The church also features a spire above the nave. To ensure good acoustics, following an ancient and effective method, the builders embedded clay pots into the wall at the base of the solid spire. The church was built to a high standard, with walls approximately one metre thick. The iconostasis is also constructed of masonry, featuring three semicircular arched openings for the royal and deacon’s doors. The wall of the iconostasis is slightly flared towards the nave.
The entrance to the church features a sort of semi-conical canopy, supported by two wooden columns. The door is framed by a triangular pediment at the top, of Neoclassical influence, whilst the western façade is divided into five vertical sections, reflecting the same Western influence. On the south side of the altar there is an entrance door leading into this liturgical space.
The architecture of the church at Popânzălești Monastery is typical of the eclectic buildings of the nineteenth century, both in Wallachia and in Moldavia, particularly in terms of its external appearance. The solidity of the construction has, however, contributed to the enduring resilience of this church, which is representative of monastic life in southern Oltenia. We may assume that the original frescoes of the church at Popânzălești Monastery, hidden for two centuries beneath successive layers of tempera as a result of uninspired repainting, may well have been executed in the true Byzantine style. A much-needed cleaning of the church walls to remove the paintwork dating from after 1853 could bring to light part of Popânzălești’s hidden treasure. It is quite possible that this painting also has significant documentary value, intended to fill in the missing pages of the history of the monastic settlement in what was formerly Romanați.
The current layer of painting replicates, to some extent, the scenes and figures present in the original frescoes. It is almost certainly the case that the founder’s painting on the western wall of the narthex, divided into two registers, was recreated based on the 1853 version, but in a rather clumsy manner. Thus, in the lower register, from left to right of the arch separating the narthex from the nave, we see depicted Iliodor Periețeanu and the hieromonk Lavrentie, the founder and first abbot of the monastery rebuilt under the guidance of Saint Calinic, followed by the merchants Dumitru and Stanca, benefactors of the monastery. In the upper register, Saint Calinic and Prince Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei are depicted in two medallions.
On the iconostasis, in the centre—rather atypically—is painted the scene of the Coronation of the Mother of God, with the two traditional registers arranged to her right and left: that of the apostles, in the upper section, and that of the feast days, in the lower section. The walls of the church are adorned mainly with portraits of saints, executed using stencils during the most recent restoration of the frescoes, so that there are few differences in facial features to distinguish them individually.
The current imperial icons, numbering six, were painted in a realistic style by the monk brothers Constantin and Florea of Frăsinei Monastery in 1852. Four of these icons are on the iconostasis, and two on the eastern wall of the narthex.
Local tradition holds that Saint Calinic is said to have donated to Popânzălești Monastery, on the occasion of its consecration in 1853, a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God, adorned with a necklace of gold coins. This sacred relic, along with many others that the monastery is said to have possessed, were lost over time, and all trace of them was lost forever.
During the time of the Râmnic bishops Filaret and Chesarie, it appears that the monastic settlement at Popânzălești had become a centre for the distribution of ecclesiastical books printed at the Râmnic Diocese’s printing house, a fact which led to the monastery’s collection being enriched with valuable liturgical books, which also disappeared during the years of persecution. The inventory drawn up by the priest Ion Popescu Cilieni in 1943 lists among the valuable possessions of Popânzălești Monastery: “four imperial icons with three silver crowns, an archiepiscopal throne, Romanian books: the Minee, the Gospels, an Apostles’ Book, a Psalter, a Pentecostarion, an Octoechos”.
The monastery, rebuilt by Saint Calinic, also held in its treasury a silver chalice engraved with the name ‘Elisabeta, the abbess’, dating from the brief period when the settlement functioned as a nunnery. The precious archiepiscopal throne of Saint Calinic, also mentioned in the catalogue compiled by the priest Ion Popescu Cilieni, remains in the church to this day.
The natural setting of Hamza Popânzălescu’s foundation was destined to bring spiritual delight, in different eras, to two of Oltenia’s senior hierarchs, to such an extent that each of them, during their time as shepherds, made a decisive contribution to the revival of monastic life here. Saint Calinic of Cernica, who founded the monastery in 1853, was so struck by the extraordinary beauty and tranquillity of the place that he used to retreat to Popânzălești, whilst Metropolitan Nestor Vornicescu, at whose suggestion Popânzălești once again became a monastery after 128 years, found this place to be an oasis of contemplation and inspiration, writing four of his works here during the final years of his life.
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Rev. Ion POPESCU-CILIENI, ‘A Survey of the Diocese of Râmnic’, in Revista de istorie bisericească, 1/1943.