Măgariul Monastery – Bujoreni, Zorleni Commune, Vaslui County

The monastic settlement was set up in the 16^th – 17^th centuries (a. 1602), as a convent of the Bujoreanu family, on their property bearing the same name, in a secluded place in the forest.

The legend says that the church was built by the monetary contribution of some shepherds who arrived with the sheep herds from the mountains to spend the winter, on the place of an old oak, where a donkey kneeled various times, and into the hollow of which there was found the icon representing the Virgin Mary and Child. It is said that this icon, capable of making miracles, was hidden by the monks from the Recea Monastery, which was found nearby and destroyed during the Tartar incursions in the 15^th century (around 1440).

The convent’s church, patronized by the „Dormition of the Virgin Mary”, also reconstructed of wood at the end of the 18^th century by the chancellor Gavril Conachi, owner of the property, was rebuilt from the wall by his son, the monk Ioanichie Conachi, in the 19^th century (around 1840). After he death of the devout founder, the convent was maintained by his niece, Ruxanda Rosnovanu, who inherited the Zorleni and Bujorenii estates. In 1911, the convent was maintained by the Royal House, by the Administration of the Zorleni estate, becoming royal property from 1883. Damaged by the earthquake in 1940, the church was restored serving until 1958, when the convent was disestablished. In 1993, the settlement was reinstated with the monastery status. During 1994 – 2002, the assembly was completed by new cells and other household dependencies, the precinct being surrounded by a stone fence. Placed in a natural picturesque background and well organized as a household, the monastery may provide services of ecumenical tourism.

The way the church looks today is due to its being renovated in 2001-2002. It keeps the three-apse plan, of semicircular altar apse, belfry tower to the west. It shelters the tomb of its founder in a niche in the wall between the nave and narthex.