The wooden church "Transfiguration of Jesus" Orăseni Hermitage

The wooden church dedicated to the "Transfiguration of Jesus" enjoys a rich history. Located on the banks of the Miletin stream, it is part of the Orăseni Hermitage and has been preserved in its current form since 1760, when the nobleman Iordache Esecescu and his mother, Safta, founded it on the site of an older building.

Its specific Moldavian architecture from the reign of Grigore Ghica highlights the influence of the Russian hermits who arrived in the area. The church is built of oak beams and covered with shingles, and the inscription inside shows the year of construction, 1760.

The church is the only one with this dedication in the Botoşani Archdiocese and was once a hermitage of Russian hermits. Around the church is the old cemetery of the hermitage, where about 250 monks and nuns rest, most of them being hermits or hermits who dedicated their lives to unceasing prayer.

Although modest in size, the church impresses with the simplicity of the construction and the elegance of the carved wood. The interior is composed of four rooms, and the carved brackets of the partition arches are easy to see. The iconostas, decorated with floral ornaments and gold dust, is signed "Varlaam the monk, 1614, September".

The church houses objects of historical and artistic value, such as a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God and a reliquary that preserves a fragment of the relics of Saint Pious Sila. In the courtyard of the hermitage is the Museum "Chilia Pustnicilor", which houses a valuable collection of priestly vestments, silver and gold censers, icons from the 18th century and other objects discovered in the attic of the church.

The parish complex also includes the parish house, a wooden belfry, a wayside cross in memory of those sacrificed for the faith, a funeral meal house and the Guest House "St. Sila".

Around 1800, Fevronia, Sofia and Olimpiada Iurașcu, the sisters of Mihai Eminescu's mother, settled in this monastic community. In 1814, however, they decided to join the Agafton monastery, where one of the sisters, Olimpiada, later took on the robes of an abbess. At the Orăseni hermitage there were also girls from the Arapu, Mavromati or Foti noble families from Botoșani.

The old name of the village, Schit Orăseni, refers to the predominant presence of nuns in the last decades before the formation of the village, and the existence of the church became essential to strengthen the connection of the village with the spiritual dimension. The hermitage was known as "Mothers" precisely because of their predominant presence. Thus, the church evolved not only as a place of worship, but also as a symbol of the collective spiritual experience in the Schit Orăseni community.