History of Christiana Monastery
Erected at the end of a by road of about 500m, hidden behind the wild vegetation, grown from the mercy of God, and the concrete-mixing plant, once used to the building up of the Aviation residential district, the Christiana Monastery dominates, in full dignity, the outskirts of the Capital, in 49 Pipera street. The initiative belonged to Mr. Doctor Pavel Chirilă who, encouraged by a group of priests and doctors from Bucharest, asked in 1992, from His Beatitude Teoctist, Patriarch of Romania, His blessing in building a Medical-ecclesiastical center in the area; this center was supposed to have: a polyclinic, four specialized clinics and a monastery.
In the same year they started to build the polyclinic which unfortunately, was abandoned and turned into a Bucharest traffic police station. The following year, the corner-stone was laid and the place for the monastery was consecrated by His Grace, Theophan Sinaitul, Vicar Bishop, who supervised the way the works for this young convent were going on, until his election as a Metropolitan of Oltenia.
By Benedicta Chirobocea, mother superior striving efforts, by the support of the ‘Christiana’ Christian Medical Association, by The State Secretariat of Religion Department, by the ROMTRANS S.A. - by the benevolence of Mr. Eugen Bâr, director, by the CONINVEST S.A. commercial society and by the help of other good hearted donors, the cells of the convent were erected; the architect was Mr. Octavian Neculai from S.C. NEOBOS Impex S.R.L.
Between 2001 and 2005, under the direct supervision of His Grace Sebastian Ilfoveanul, Vicar Bishop of the Bucharest Archdiocese, by the help of Mrs. Maria Liliana Vasilescu from Belgium, of Ion and Viorica Buzinescu, Ion and Adriana Cheşa and of the other good Christians from Bucharest, the church was painted and furnished in oak graven furniture; the architect was Mrs. Gabriela Iamandi, the engineer Mr. Victor Nedriţă from Bucharest and the builder Mr. Mircea Irimia from Suceava together with his team of workers. The frescos were made by Mircea Petrişor from Bucharest. Meanwhile the elderly people asylum was set-up in a former manufacture workshop meant to serve the whole would-be complex.
On June 1, 2002, on the occasion of a pastoral visit of His Beatitude Teoctist, the former Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church offered the ‘Christiana’ nuns community an icon and a little part of the relics of Saint Antipa the Romanian, from Calapodeşti (commemorated on January 10), who thus became, the saint patron of this convent.
On October 2, 2005 the Patriarch, accompanied by His Grace Sebastian Ilfoveanul, Vicar Bishop, and by a group of priests, consecrated the church, dedicated it to the Pentecost and to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and inaugurated the asylum for elderly women.
The church is built in the shape of a clover (22.20m x 6.70m – 10m) and has a special arrangement: the altar and the nave are incorporated in the asylum for the elderly women, and the pro-nave and the porch are built in the outside. The structure of the building is of concrete pillars and brick walls; the nave is covered by a hemisphere held by a pendant and arches; the sideway apses and that apse of the altar are covered by crowned caps.
Above the entrance of the church there is a little balcony for the choir; the access up there is made by a wooden staircase. The wide open porch is sustained by two pairs of cylindrical pillars, and on the frontispiece there is an icon in mosaic of the feast to which the church is dedicated (Pentecost).
On June 2007 there started the construction of the new church right on the place which had been consecrated in 1993, as the existing church is not large enough to admit the flood of faithful people coming to Sundays or feast days services. In the spring of 2008, by the help of Mr. Neculai Onţanu the mayor of Sector 2, the work for the second group of cells was resumed, as it was partially interrupted for a while.
