“Putnian Monastery and Community” as viewed by Dimitrie Dan

Abstract

The article reveals the content of the monograph of the famous Bukovyna scholar Dimitrie Dan (1856–1927), dedicated to the Putnyan Monastery, an Orthodox shrine from the southern part of Bukovyna. In addition, the goal of the research is to translate a part of the monograph devoted to the ethnography of the village of Putnia. The relevance of the research is realized by the extreme interest of the inhabitants of the northern part of Bukovyna and other regions of Ukraine in the monastery from the neighbouring Suchav County of Romania. The in-depth analysis of the monograph and the translation of a certain fragment from it represent the novelty of the research. The author with utmost diligence revealed the existing state of the monastery and commune (community) at that time, revealed their history, described the appearance of the monastery and parish churches and the village, the burials of the founders of the holy monastery, looked under the tombstones of these burials, describing their contents like an archaeologist. He did not neglect the decoration and decoration of the monastery. He described with palpable love the manuscript and printed book fund of the monastery and the Desert (Sihăstria); the traditional culture of the Romanians of Putna, characterized the literary and cultural life that raged in the monastery for centuries. The stone cell and the Desert are described separately. Many documents related to monastic land ownership were published in the appendices. Conclusions. So, we can state that D. Dan's work “Putnian Monastery and Community with two Appendices” is a complete, comprehensive monograph that reveals the historical, geographical, economic and ethnographic features of one of the most significant monasteries of Bucovina and the entire Romanian ethnic space. Some details from the past of this holy abode (opening of the graves of the founders of the monastery or the transfer of the Dragoš-vode church to Putna) were forgotten over time and were known only to narrow specialists. At the same time, the ethnographic essay of the Putnia community made public the unique rites, rituals and texts of fortune-telling, which demonstrates the special skill of D. Dan as an ethnologist. The documents presented in the two appendices of the book can still be useful to local historians researching the history of their native village. In this work, all the positive qualities of his writing talent were fully manifested, such as good knowledge of sources, mastery of the method of synthesis, expressive and condensed text, clarity of ethnopsychological reflection, etc