Saint patron day: The Change of Face of the Lord (August 6th )
Year of foundation: 1996
Prior: Andrei Radu
Cenobitic life: three monks
Accommodation: 20 persons
The monastery is known as ” Putna of Banat ” grace to the story of the life of a monk who left the Land of Almăj for the Moldavian Putna Monastery and then to Mount Athos in Greece. It is the place where the thirst for reinforcement in the right faith is poignantly felt.
The Almăj – Putna Monastery is the “Banat Putna” or The monastery of “Putneanul” after the “trace” left by the monastic life of the monk Pahomie Putneanul, who left the Almăl Monastery to go to the Putna Monastery in Moldavia. It is said that in the 17th century, a faithful man from Almăj, wishing to live a monk’s life and thirsting after salvation “like a deer at the water springs”, went to Moldova to the Putna Monastery, founded by Prince Stephen the Great. After many religious endeavours, he went to Mount Athos (in Greece), where he remained for almost 18 years. Toward the end of his life, the Mother of God appeared in a dream to the righteous monk, urging him to return to his native lands to support the Orthodox believers who at that time were persecuted by the “catholic wave” of the foreign domination.
As recorded in a Cyrillic Liturgy Book kept at Frăsina (Vâlcea) Monastery, the monk returned to the village of Putna together with seven disciples and lived in the cave at the border of the village, in that place there is a chapel situated today. The monk served in these wonderful lands and, through the power of prayer, he did many miracles; from his miracles the locals always mention the healing of the two mute sisters, the daughters of a landlord. Out of gratitude, the landlord built a house of prayer where Father Pahomie and his disciples came to speak to the faithful and pray for their lives. It was the first house – church around which the village of Putna in Almăj was formed later, the village of the monk Pahomie Putneanul.
From this story came the thought of building a monastery on the outskirts of Putna, on the land donated by the warrant officer Luca Zăvoianu, a native of the village. The foundation stone of the monastery was placed on the 6th of August 1996 by PS Laurenţiu Streza, the bishop of Caransebeș at that time, today the Metropolitan of Transylvania. The actual monastic life began in the spring of 1997, with the arrival of the first prior from the Sava Gana Monastery together with four other monks.
Each year, on August 6th they celebrate the day of the monastery’s saint patron “The Changing of Face “, and on the first Friday after Easter, when the Feast of the Healing Spring is celebrated, they go to the spring located in the monastery’s garden, donated by Professor Pavel Panduru of Prigor. Thus, you relieve not only your thirst for water, but also the thirst for strengthening in the right faith, in a truly rustic natural setting, on the beautiful valley of the Putna River. At Almâj-Putna Monastery you can taste the fish near the four arranged lakes nearby and you will feel how beautifully the vesper bell’s voice vibrates and sounds.