The ‘Maria Radna’
\nmonastery in Lipova, Arad County, in Western Romania, was a well-known place
\neven to Pope John Paul 2nd, who in 1992 gave it the rank of
\n‘Basilica Minor’. In the Timisoara Diocese there is a church devoted to the
\nHoly Virgin, known by the people as ‘Maria Radna’, said the Holy Father about
\nthat church known as early as the Middle Ages as home to Franciscan monks. The
\norder managed to survive there even during the Ottoman occupation of the region
\nof Banat between the 16th and the 18th centuries. That
\nwas actually the period when the first documents about the Maria Radna church
\nappeared. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For more details we talked to father Nicolae Laus, Chancellor of the
\nRoman – Catholic Bishopric in Timisoara: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to Turkish documents, there
\nwas a derelict church around 1642 that was renovated, while preserving its
\noriginal size. In 1681 the church underwent further repairs. In the 164 year
\nlong Ottoman rule in Banat, there were several battles between the Austrian
\nimperial armies and the Ottoman army. In 1695, the Turks burned everything to
\nthe ground, and the church in Radna was destroyed in the fire. In 1723, a new,
\nbigger church was built, but that too proved too small, so that in 1756 plans
\nwere approved for the building of the church we see today.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The most valuable object in the church of Radna
\nis a miracle-making icon of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Painted on
\nparchment, the icon miraculously survived the Ottoman fire of 1695, and today
\nit holds prides of place. Here is father Nicolae Laus with the details: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Nicolae
\nLaus: According to documents prior to 1750, the icon had been in Radna since
\n1668. An old inhabitant of Radna, a Bosnian, had bought it from an Italian
\nmerchant and then donated it to the church in Maria Radna. Since 1767 the icon
\nhas been on the sanctuary in the present church whose construction started in
\n1756. Between 1769 and 1771, jeweler Joseph Moser made an exquisite silver
\nframe for the icon of Virgin Mary. It was also Joseph Moser who made the big
\nicon lamp in front of the sanctuary. The frame of the icon can be considered
\nthe most significant work of its kind in the whole of Eastern Europe. And
\nbecause in 1895 the old wooden baroque sanctuary was seriously deteriorated, a
\ndecision was made that sculptor Stefan Toth build another one out of Carrara
\nMarble. Its consecration was connected to the celebration of the bicentennial
\nof the icon, commemorating the blaze of 1695.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Started in 1756, in time the Maria Radna church
\nhas preserved its impressive look. The nave is 56 meters long, 20 meters wide
\nand 21 meters high. The towers, that were the last to be erected, were
\nover-heightened in 1911 to reach 67 meters. Above the main altar there is a
\nfresco featuring the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, painted by the Viennese
\nartist Ferdinand Schlissel in 1762. In
\n2013, thanks to EU funding, the Maria Radna monastery was thoroughly refurbished.
\nThe works were completed in the autumn of 2015, having focused mainly on the
\nmonastic compound, according to father Nicolae Laus. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nicolae Laus: We refurbished the main fa\u00e7ade and
\nthe towers, the inside of the church remained untouched. We only changed the
\nelectrical system inside the church but the focal point of the restoration
\nworks was the monastery, which was in a derelict state. We had all the three
\nadjacent parts of the monastery restored. One part of the monastery was turned
\ninto a museum, another part is used as a conference hall because this project
\nintended to attract tourists from the west of the country. At around 50 meters
\naway from the monastery we set up a tourist information centre for those who
\ncome and visit the Maria Radna monastery, a former Franciscan place of
\nworship.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Franciscan monks lived there until 2003
\nwhen, due to the lack of members in the Franciscan order, they left the Maria
\nRadna monastery in Lipova, which was entrusted to the Timisoara Bishopric. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Maria Radna monastery in Lipova, Western Romania, was a well-known place even to Pope John Paul 2nd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n