Mălinești Monastery

In the immediate vicinity of the village of Gârceni, on a high plateau surrounded by ancient forests, lies a place that seems suspended between heaven and earth. Mălinești Monastery represents one of the oldest monastic settlements in Vaslui county.

According to legend, before a battle with the Turks, Stephen the Great stopped in the area of Gârceni with his army for three days and three nights, near the hermitage where the hermit Mălin lived. The voivode promised the hermit that, in case of victory, he would give the hermitage significant estates as a thanksgiving to God. After winning the war, Stephen the Great endowed the hermitage with land and forest, thus becoming a monastery.

During the Second World War, despite the horrors of war and years of drought, the monastery experienced a spiritual flourishing. Here, a weaving workshop for canvas and carpets operates, as well as a school of psaltic music.

A place of refuge and comfort, it is still ready to welcome you for moments of tranquility and relaxation, where you can recharge spiritually and savor the picturesque landscape of Moldova.

Within the monastery of Mălinești, we find the wooden church with three domes, dedicated to the "Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel", built in 1826. Its main element is the iconostasis, influenced by Moldavian Baroque and adorned with floral motifs.

After 1990, the new ensemble of the monastery was built, consisting of the church dedicated to the "Protection of the Mother of God", with its side wings housing the cells, the refectory, the library, and the reading room.

The church has three octagonal domes, inspired by the churches of the time of Stephen the Great or Petru Rareș, and corresponding to them, two other towers at the ends of the building.

The church was restored in 2023 by the National Investment Company Bucharest within the "Consolidation-Restoration-Conservation Project of the Wooden Church of Mălinești Monastery".

The monastic institution preserves within its walls special religious objects, such as the wonder-working Icon of the Mother of God and the wonder-working Icon of Saint Anne with the Mother of God in her arms. The latter was gifted to the monastery in 1956 from Durău Hermitage.

Additionally, the painting adorning the holy place is also of priceless spiritual value, being executed in Neo-Byzantine style by the painters Livia and Gheorghe Pavel.