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Liliana CONDRATICOVA: Tabăra Nunnery under the Soviet-Ideology Dominance 207
We notice that the State’s policy in terms of economy and ideology bore fruit, the
liquidation of the monastic community from Tabăra being unquestionable and very
painful. The nuns opposed to their best, but in vain. In 1952, the abbess, together with the
congregation of priests, wrote a letter wherein they tearfully explained that they had
grown up in the monastery ever since childhood; that they had grown old there, too. And
that “They undertake to be obedient, dutiful, submissive, lest their monastery should be
closed, provided they should be allowed to further live at Tabăra” [30]. Soon, the abbess
Sepfora wrote a new letter stating that after the discussion with the archpriest Iacov
Baderău, in the monastery, rumours were spread that the monastic community would be
abolished in two weeks’ time. The nun Tavifa (Ursu) much suffered because of the
president of the workshop, attempting by various means to maintain a severe discipline in
the monastery; therefore she was fired from the workshop and consequently remained
without means of subsistence
Tabăra nunnery was presented in front of the authorities as “an extreme evil and
enormous danger for the population of Tabăra village, in the midst of which it is placed”
[31]. We emphasize that the tendency to abolish the monasteries may be traced along the
period. The six monasteries put out of evidence in 1958, were in fact soon closed.
On January 1, 1959, at Tabăra lived 188 inmates, inclusively 95 nuns [32]. Of the total
number, 171 nuns lived in their own houses-monastic cells, and 17 dwellers – in the
abbey. During the same year, the monastic lands lessened to only 1,48 ha land,
inclusively 1,3 ha arable land [33]. This way, the monastery, once very large and
economically stable, in such conditions, was liquidated without supplementary efforts in
early 1960 [34]. We mention on this occasion that an ideological activity for preparing
the liquidation of the monastery was carried out, that anti-religious lessons were read by
atheist lecturers, that the Roma people were forbidden to settle nearby, as they came out
to defend the monastic congregations. A special commission, consisting of 13 persons,
party activists, was created, directly concerned with liquidating Tabăra convent and with
transferring the nuns to work in the carpet workshop. In order to use the nuns’ labour
force and mastery, at Străşeni, in 1960, they planned to build a new carpet factory.[35].
Of the 180 indwellers, more than half were elderly. The youngest ones, the Council stated
in its decision, should they want to pray, they might attend the churches in the villages
nearby, placed at 3-6 km from Tabăra nunnery.
In 1960, after numerous efforts to intimidate the monastic congregation, Tabăra convent
was abolished. Most nuns remained at their homes, surrounding the two churches.
Nowadays, the elderly nuns from Tabăra confess that they suffered a lot and that they
hardly bore that the nunnery had been transformed into a place of debauchery. On this
occasion, we emphasize that the carpets woven by the nuns from Tabăra are worth special
attention and that they present an invaluable source for the study of the national
decorative art, possessing a special historical-artistic value [36]. A while, the diligence of
the nuns from Tabăra was exploited by the communists. A carpet-weaving factory made
them famous in the former MSSR. The choice carpets by the artisans from Tabăra
nunnery have always aroused the admiration of the art collectors and amateurs. Only in
1959, of 180 dwellers, 80 worked at these carpets. After the closing of the monastery, in
1960, the nuns skilled in the art of the traditional carpet were compelled to work in the