The Vodița Monastery in Mehedinți county is one of the first documented monasteries in the Romanian Country, being founded in the 14th century by Saint Nicodemus. The creation of the monastery is shrouded in an air of mystery and legend: it is said that God would have appeared to Saint Nicodemus in a dream, indicating where to build a monastery. According to the legends, the saint went in search of the place seen in the dream and crossed the Danube from south to north, walking on his mantle.
Born in Serbia in the 14th century, in a Wallachian family, Nicodemus embraced and preached the Orthodox religion, becoming the abbot of a monastery on Mount Athos. One night, the monk Nicodemus God appeared in his dreams (according to other sources Maica Precista (Virgin Mary) or a messenger of the Lord), who would have ordered the creation of a monastic settlement in a rocky and forested place, called “at the cascades”:
– Nicodemus, you stay here, in peace and well-being, while your brothers in faith beyond the Danube are tormented because they cannot serve God. Come on, though, get up and go as fast as you can and help them, because only this will save them.
After this appearance, Nicodemus took with him the necessary things and left the Holy Mountain, starting in search of the place seen in the dream. And the monk searched all the way to the Danube without meeting the right place. Reaching the banks of the Danube, Nicodemus would have wanted to continue his journey, but he was not shown any way to cross the encircled and deep waters of the river. Without luck, he went up and down the Danube, still looking for a way to cross the Danube’s Walachian bank. Not knowing where to get from here, tired and devoid of food, Nicodemus sat on the shore, in the shade of a tree. But nor for a moment did he intend to disobey the commandment he had received in a dream or to give up his search for the place from the waterfalls. And as the saint stood in the shade, looking at the flowing water, his eyelids became hard and his eyes closed, falling into a deep sleep. He did not sleep well, for God appeared in his dream again, saying to him:
– Why did you stop, Nicodemus? Have you given up the will of your God? Get up and cross the Danube, to worship in one of the valleys a place like no other! The Wallachian people are waiting for you to open their eyes to the Right Faith, to give them power and help in the years to come. Get up, don’t stay there anymore! Start with confidence in me towards the Wallachian land, just above the waves of the Danube, for the waters will not do you any harm, they will even carry you where I command you to reach. Stretch your mantle on the water, and your faith in Me will guide your steps and light your life!
As God had finished speaking, Nicodemus awoke from his sleep and, without pausing for a moment to think or to question the word of his Lord, he threw his mantle on the water, and it did not sink, nor did he sink, he did not start down the valley with the whirling Danube. It seemed that his mantle was floating above the water! Making the sign of the cross, Nicodemus put one foot on the mantle and with the other he pushed into the bank, leaving the place. Around him, the water seemed to flow slower than the rest of the Danube, and not from the west to the east, but from the south to the Wallachian region. Thus it was that the waves carried the monk on the other bank, where he got down near Rușava (today’s Orșova town).
Seeing how he witnessed such a miracle, Nicodemus was grateful to his God through an uninterrupted day and night of prayer. As soon as he had finished thanking the Lord, he set out to investigate where the waters brought him. He started for a small watercourse and, arriving in a landscape full of flowers and greenery, warmed by the gentle rays of the sun, he decided to raise there a monastery, called the Vodița Monastery (which means the Monastery between the Waters).
After the monk finished laying the foundation of his first monastery in the Wallachian lands, he went to the nearby Duhovna Hill. Seeing the sunny slope of the hill, Nicodemus set out to plant vines, to have the monks of the monastery come for the holy spiritual services. Legend says that the Saint also raised a pipe made of clay roofing tiles, so that the grape must (grape’s juice) squeezed in the grapevine to reach from the hill to the cellars of the monastery. At the first fruit of the vine, the grape’s juice has turned into a sweet and good wine, rather intoxicating for the mind, body and soul.
Legend also says that, seeing the monks who came with Nicodemus to serve in the monastery how good the wine was, they began to taste more and more. Instead of using it for work, they started drinking it instead of cold water. The saint observed the behaviours of his colleagues and did not look at this with good eyes. One day, he caught one of the monks as he brought a glass of wine to his mouth in the cellars of the monastery, punished him by sending him to build another pipe made of clay pots to bring water from a spring in the monastery. Working hard on the construction of the pipeline, the monk learned not to interfere again with the arrangement of things and to remain dedicated to spiritual activities. It is said that the spring captured by the monk from Vodita Monastery also flows today, being captured and arranged near the Vodita River. The water there is so cold and so good that the summer steams the bottles and soothes the thirst better than any other liqueur.
Today, the old legendary house of the Vodita Monastery built by Nicodemus no longer exists. There is only a gate arch and an old stone cross that remind the travellers of the thanks given by Saint Nicodemus to his God for the miracle he performed. In 2001, however, the new Vodița Monastery was built and sanctified, with a traditional Romanian church and a series of monasteries that offer visitors an oasis of peace, tranquility and faith.
Nearby, on both the Romanian and Serbian shores, there are other forms of relief whose names remind of the miraculous passage of the Danube by Saint Nicodemus on his mantle, such as “The Monk’s Hill” or “The Monk’s Valley”.
Also in the area is the Marcopici trail, which is linked to another local legend. The path starts from near the Vodița Monastery and winds up through the trees to the town of Jidoștița. It took its name from one of the monks of the monastery, named Mark, who was Nicodemus’ right hand. Man with faith and fear of God, Mark also led his days according to the church canons, in prayer and fasting. Among his tasks at the monastery were the trade fair in Jidoștița, to buy all that was necessary to the monastery and the monks. While going to the fair, one day Mark laid his eyes on a girl more beautiful than the moon and the sun at one place and once fell in love with her. In vain did the monk oppose his burning feelings, in vain did he pray and fast. Eventually, the temptation was stronger than his duty, and Mark secretly met the beautiful girl at a well. Said and done, the monk went on an unknown path and met the girl at the fountain located in a little pit in the middle of the road between the monastery and the village of Jidoștița and they liked each other a lot. They saw each other once, they saw each other twice, until it seemed to Nicodemus that his brother was lying much longer than before. Suspecting that Mark had deviated from the path of their faith, St. Nicodemus followed him one day and actually captured the young monk who fell into temptation. As a punishment, the saint put in Mark’s hands a wooden dig with which to dig the entire lands from the monastery to the hidden fountain to make a road. Legend says that, while Nicodemus pointed to Mark the secret path in the direction of the fountain in the shadow of which he had sinned, he would have said to him: Marco, prici! (Mark, over here!), and from there would come the name of today’s trail. Ashamed and upset himself that he yielded to temptation and was not worthy of his faith, Mark was put on the dig and did not stop until he made the path to the well. When he got there, exhausted by fatigue, he laid his head down and fell asleep in the shade of the well. And the monk slept so long, until he had fallen asleep forever. Since then, say the elders from the villages near Vodita Monastery, the fountain was called the Fountain of the priest.
Bibliography:
· Alexandra Georgescu, “The strangest legend of a monastery. The monk Nicodemus miraculously passed the Danube to the Romanians floating on the monk’s mantle ”, July 3, 2015, https://adevarul.ro/locale/turnu-severin/cea-mai-stranie-legenda-manastiri-calugarul-nicodim-trecut-miraculos-dunarea-romani-plutind-mantia-calugareasca-1_55942039cfbe376e35c39c49/index.html
· Mihai Zorilă, “The life and activity of St. Nicodemus from Tismana”, 1991
· “The legend of the Marcopici path”, http://www.pnportiledefier.ro/legende.html#p1